Book Review: Children’s Picture Books About Knitting, Sewing and Weaving

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Picture Books

A boy embroiders the moon, a girl makes coats for canines and a knitted-cape crusader saves the day.

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By Peggy Orenstein

When I heard a reference on the radio recently to "dyed-in-the-wool Trump supporters," those unmoved by the findings of the Jan. 6 committee, what caught my attention wasn't their delusion but the descriptor. I wondered if the commentator knew its origin: coloring sheep fleece rather than spun thread to reduce fading.

Textile-making was central to daily life for millenniums, so our storytelling is "shot through" with fiber metaphors: We spin yarns, embroider the truth, weave fabrications from whole cloth. The princess in "Sleeping Beauty" pricks her finger (on a spindle, on flax, on a wool comb) in the Middle East, South America and across Europe. Such plot devices lost favor with industrialization. But they may be coming back. Perhaps inspired by the molasses months of lockdown when so many found comfort in needlework, a trendlet of books has emerged celebrating the fiber arts.

I especially enjoyed ME AND THE BOSS: A Story About Mending and Love (Anne Schwartz Books, 40 pp., $18.99, ages 4 to 8), written by Michelle Edwards and illustrated by April Harrison. Six-year-old Lee's big sister, Zora, controls his days. She drags him to an embroidery class at the local library that seems, at first, beyond his abilities. The needle that looks like a "tiger's tooth" bites his finger, then bites it again. It's not until Lee is alone at night in his space capsule of a bedroom that he finds his way, stitching himself a moon. Emboldened, he mends the hole in his pants pocket that had swallowed his precious quartz rock, then secretly fixes Zora's teddy bear's ripped ear, earning a hug. Harrison's illustrations are the star here, in no small part because she's a self-taught artist grounded in African American folk traditions: The pleasure of making isn't just for the elite or highly trained.

Tao Nyeu's THE LEGEND OF IRON PURL (Rocky Pond, 48 pp., $18.99, ages 4 to 8) is more fanciful, its young forest animals riveted by Granny Fuzz's tales of a caped crusader whose weapon of choice is knitting. Don't scoff: It's no weirder than a superhero who slings spider webs. Purl's identity is concealed by a hand-knit hooded cape, and her utility belt includes yarn and knitting needles. While Bandit Bob is a tepid villain, the "Busy World"-style illustrations are fun, and I appreciated the big reveal: Purl is Granny Fuzz! It's subversive, one might say crafty, to cast an older woman, whose invisibility is rarely deemed a superpower, as a crack crime-fighter.

The enterprising Izzy of Laurel Molk's KNITTING FOR DOGS (Random House Studio, 40 pp., $18.99, ages 4 to 8) churns out "birdhouses, bee houses, a wooden swing." Only knitting bedevils her. She makes a scarf and a hat, but her sweaters aren't "quite right." (I can relate.) Then, inspired by her dog, Max, she grabs her scissors and, with "a couple of snips here and a few stitches there," transforms her disasters into coats for canines! The lesson that mistakes can be opportunities is a fine one, and it's adorable to see Max's pals frolic in their snazzy new knits. But slicing through sweaters will permanently destroy them, so don't try this at home.

In the sole nonfiction entry, WOVEN OF THE WORLD (Chronicle, 44 pp., $17.99, ages 5 to 8), Katey Howes's lyrical verse follows an adult woman and a young girl (both of whom are blue-haired and brown-skinned) through the warp of time and the woof of space as they illuminate the threads that bind us. Dinara Mirtalipova's illustrations show the ancients spinning silk in China, flax in Egypt. There are tapestries, prayer rugs and wedding gowns; nomads and farmers. "Clack. Clack. Swish — PULL BACK," the loom sings, echoing the cycles of history and civilization.

As a group, these lavishly illustrated picture books are a tribute to how thread, yarn and cloth define and enrich us, how they are, truly, the fiber of our being.

Peggy Orenstein's latest book is "Unraveling: What I Learned About Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool and Making the World's Ugliest Sweater."

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