“Soon, people thought, soon Annabelle will run out of yarn.

But it turned out she didn’t.”

-Extra Yarn, by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen

Scarlett has a fabulous book called Extra Yarn. It was a gift for her third birthday, and we still read it often. It’s about a little girl who finds a box of yarn, and no matter how much she knits, there is always yarn.

Now, I’m not going to get all “life is like a box of yarn” in my best Forrest Gump voice, but I do love this book. The little girl makes a colorful sweater for herself, and one for her dog, and when a neighborhood boy is mean, she tells him he’s just jealous. I’m not, he replies. But, as the author tells us, it turns out he was.

The little girl is told that her sweater is a distraction, and when she offers to make one for everyone, she’s told that it’s impossible. That she can’t. But, the book goes on to say, it turns out she can.

And in the end (do I have to write spoiler alert here? The book is like 22 pages long, so I think you’re ok to hear this) when a terrible archduke curses the little girl, yelling that she will never be happy again, it turns out she is.

I kept thinking about that book during ALS Awareness Month. Read More>