The Mitten

In Jan Brett’s wintertime favorite The Mitten, a Ukrainian boy named Nicki wants his grandmother Baba to knit snow-white mittens for him. She warns her grandson that a white mitten will be hard to find if he loses it in the snow, but of course he promptly does just that! What happens next is the surprising part, as a mole takes refuge in the lost mitten, then a rabbit, then a hedgehog, an owl, a badger, and a fox. If you think the mitten might be a wee bit stretched out at this point, just wait: “Then a big bear sniffed at the mitten. The animals were packed in tight, but the bear didn’t care. He crawled in anyway.” The Mitten, a runaway holiday hit, is now packaged in a lovely gift box with a set of pale gray, stretchy acrylic, machine-washable, one-size-fits-most-kids-under-five mittens, complete with hedgehog decal. This is a fine story to read on a frosty night with a cup of hot chocolate (wearing hedgehog mittens of course), and if you ever get your fill of The Mitten, you can always try its delightfully original companion book, The Hat, winner of the 1998 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award. (Preschool to age 5)