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Sarah, whose family has grown and left, sees the children come to the bus stop at the end of her lane each day, One day she notices a boy with no mittens, so she knits him a pair from scraps of yarn and hangs the mittens on a spruce tree near the bus stop. Next, she knits for a girl with mismatched mittens and soon she spends all her evenings knitting mittens the children.. On the day that she covers the entire tree with mittens, she returns home to find a basket of yam waiting on her porch. "To this day, Sarah knits mittens for all the children in her town. Every time her basket is empty, a new full one appears. Sarah doesn't know who the yarn is from. The children still don't know who the mittens are from. But someone must ...”

A slight story, which lacks any narrative tension, and gives no textual or visual clues as to where the yarn does come from. Nicely illustrated, beautifully produced. I can see grandmothers giving this as a Christmas present with a pair of mittens. Unfortunately, the heartwarming effect it aims for just didn't work for me, and though I read it many times I don't see it as a tale I would ever tell. My call would be that it is close, but no cigar.

The Second Story Review, Vol 3, No. 2, June 1998