Traditional Lit

The Mitten

Retold by Jim Aylesworth

Illustrated by: Barbara McClintock

Scholastic Press, 2009

32 pages

Traditional Literature

              I found this book through our textbook. I had forgotten about it from when I was little but as soon as I started reading it all came back to me. Of course the version I had read was by Jan Brett. Even though I’m not that old the fact they are being retold makes me feel a little bit older. That just shows how timeless traditional literature is. In this story Forest animals find a boys lost mitten in the snow. One by one the file their way into the mitten trying to stay warm. The mitten can only be stretched so far though. What might happen to this mitten if there are too many animals?

              The pictures in this book look to me like dark watercolors or oils. The illustrations help your children see what’s going on by looking at the pictures while the adult reads the text. Students remember more when they have visuals. It helps the students remember what happened next if they can picture it in their mind.

              It is appropriate for a younger audience. That being said I think that this book could be used in an older classroom depending on the activity you pair it with. Using this in an early elementary classroom I would make it a reader’s theatre. They could dress up like the animals or use puppets they create themselves. Children would gain so much more knowledge by reading and acting out the story. For a science connection you could talk about the different animals in the story. You could even relate weather and how cold winter is into this as well. Social Studies work you can look at the past versions of this book and show how they have changed over time. This version of The Mitten received a silver Parent's Choice Award.