The Mitten by Jan Brett

Jan Brett adapts this Ukranian folktale into a visually striking story full of humor, life, and spirit. After Nicki's grandmother Baba makes him new white mittens, she warns him not to lose them in the snow. As Nicki plays outside, he soon loses a mitten. Unbeknownst to Nicki, different forest animals find the mitten and sneak inside it to keep warm, until the brown bear sneezes everyone out. The mitten shoots into the air just in time for Nicki to spot it before he returns to Baba's house.

This delightful story emphasizes childhood innocence and obliviousness. Right away, Nicki loses his mitten-the one thing his Baba told him not to do. Without taking notice, Nicki continues on with his own adventures in the snow. Meanwhile, the woodland animals gather into the mitten one by one. I enjoyed Brett's use of the animals' features to describe why the animals alaready in the mitten kept letting more animals enter. Whether it was the rabbit's "big kickers," the owl's "glinty talons," or the fox's "shiny teeth," they make room for each individual animal because of its distinct characteristics.

Jan Brett makes the most out her rectangular space in which to work. The outlined border highlights different features of the story. For example, the left side shows the majority of the "human action" showing where Nicki has been and what he has been doing. On the right border, children can predict what animal will fit into the mitten next based on the picture given on the previous page. For example, I saw the picture of the mole but couldn't identify the picture as a mole until I read the story. The different animals can serve as both counting features for young children, or it can provide an early example of foreshadowing in stories.

The main pictures inside the border span the width of two pages. This helps to show the wide expanse of the forest and also the consuming snow that covers the Ukranian land. Serving as a reminder of Ukranian culture, this book can be an example of an adapted folktale or part of a multicultural unit in schools. Students can examine the dress patterns of people in different cultures, the types of houses, or the types of art people do. In addition to the extra story pictures in the border, traditional Ukranian flowers appear on the pages as well. While offering a delightful and humorous story, Jan Brett also reminds us of the importance of embracing other cultures and lifestyles.