Jan Brett's "The Mitten": illustration, format, and impact

Mitten by Jan Brett

Jan Brett is the illustrator of well-known folktales, fairy tales, and poems, These include the Owl and the Pussycat, by Edward Lear and Goldilocks and the Three Bears. She continues in this vein in 1989 in the Mitten.

Short Overview and Summary of Book

In the Mitten, a Ukrainian boy named Nicki wants his grandmother Baba to knit some white mittens for him. Baba warns Nicki that a white mitten will be harder to find if he loses it in the snow. The typical boy, Nicki promptly loses the mitten in the snow. What happens next seemingly borrows from a National Geographic special as a mole takes refuge in the lost mitten, followed by a rabbit, then a hedgehog, an owl, a badger, a fox, a bear and finally a mouse. The mouse then tickles the bear's nose. He sneezes, thereby dislodging all of the mitten's inhabitants all at once. Nicki the finds his mitten and takes it home. Baba is puzzled about how it has become so stretched out (Brett, 1989) .

Impact of the Book and Strengths and Weaknesses

In the opinion of this author, the book has more impact in the larger, eleven inch edition than it does in the smaller board book format. The author found this out testing it on their niece who was given both editions. Certainly, the size of the illustrations in the larger editions of the book are a strength and in the smaller edition a weakness.

The smaller board book did not have as much effect as the larger eleven inch by eleven inch version. The description in the smaller edition is that the text in the board book is abridged. The story has a simplified story line that is a bare minimum of text. It really does not connect the illustrations together that well. Certainly, the Achilles heel of the smaller edition (as well as the strength of the larger eleven by eleven inch version) are the size of the illustrations. Size here definitely matters if the niece's reactions are any indications. A teacher might want to test them out on a small group of children first to check which edition is better to use in their class.

What the above details of text and illustrations points up a baseline issue that ties everything together which is relevance to their lives ("The full-day early," 2010, 6-7). For this reason, it might be necessary to prepare the children in the class for the reading by showing them a short nature film, preferably one that they have seen on television, in particular on PBS where such images are recurring. Also, it might be good to use the book as the follow-up to a field trip to a nature park or zoo. The teacher could make connections to animals seen in the zoo that are shown in the book. These animals could be highlighted in the field trip visit and then reviewed during the learning session.

Also, the literature that came in the book wrapping indicated that there was Jan Brett illustrated an animal quiz that became available in 1996.

This author could not find the product on Amazon, but it would probably be available used on e-Bay or other online purchasing site. Certainly, other types of animal flash cards could be used. An even better idea might be to have hand puppet or stuffed animal examples of the animals in the book to pass around for the children to look at. During their break, they could play with the toys as an added refresher for the animal concepts that they learned during the classroom and field trip sessions. Besides providing an excellent review, it would be a seamless method of integrating the reading with field trip sessions and prop and toy purchases. This type of activity will give the teacher indicators of the students' abilities as a class and individuals prior to beginning the reading unit. It might be wise to do the field trip as the follow-up idea to the book with Brett's work as preparatory for that activity.

Annotated Bibliography

1. Brett, J. (1989). The mitten. New York, NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons.

Baba knits some white mittens for her grandson and warns Nicki that a white mitten is harder to find if he loses it in the snow. Nicki loses the mitten in the snow anyway. A group of animals including a mole, a rabbit, a hedgehog, an owl, a badger, a fox, a bear a mouse climb in for shelter. The mouse tickles the bier's who sneezes and throws out all of the mitten's tenants all at once. Nicki finds his mitten and takes it home to his bewildered Baba who can not figure out why it is so stretched out.

2. Brett, J. (2010). The easter egg. New York, NY: Putnam Juvenile.

Little Hoppi the Easter Bunny is trying to decide which egg to make. First he thinks of copying one type of egg that is being made by other bunnies. However, he then decides to make an egg that is right for him. In this way, he not have to win the contest. Rather, he just takes pride in his work. Next, he unselfishly sits on a mother robin's dropped, unbroken egg so that she can sit on the two that are still in the nest. These types of messages make up the entire book and does not contain any explicit religious references surrounding Easter, so it is appropriate for a multicultural audience.

3. Brett, J. (2008). Gingerbread friends. New York, NY: Putnam Juvenile.

In the Gingerbread Baby, little Mattie made the Gingerbread Baby a house he can live in. Unfortunately, the Gingerbread Baby is very lonely and needs a good friend. The Gingerbread Baby is looking for a friend to live in the little house Mattie made for him. Along his journey, he comes to realize that not all of the cookies want to be his friend. Sometimes its just good to be home which is always a safe place to be.

4. Brett, J. (2007). The three snow bears. New York, NY: Putnam Juvenile.

In the book, Aloo-ki looks up from her fishing and sees her sled dogs floating off on floating ice. Racing after them she happens upon an igloo. Curiously, she enters and finds no one at home because the polar bear family who lives in the igloo is out for a walk while breakfast is cooling off. Aloo-ki eats some of their soup, tries on their boots and finally crawls into the smallest bed like Goldilocks for a nap. Papa, Mama, and Baby Bear see the dogs adrift and they swim out to rescue them. Finally, they return home to find Aloo-ki asleep in Baby Bear's bed.

5. Brett, J. (2004). The umbrella. New York, NY: Putnam Juvenile.

In the book, young Carlos wants to spot certain kinds of animals in a nearby rain forest. He is disappointed when no living animals appear. After this, he drops his umbrella which is made from leaves and climbs a tree for a better look. During this time, one by one all of the rain forest's creatures settle into Carlos' umbrella. The animals argue over the available space until the weight of a hummingbird tips the whole umbrella over. The book follows a story line similar to The Mitten.