16. The Mitten

Title: Brett, Jan. The mitten: a Ukrainian folktale, adapted and illustrated by Jan Brett. Lancaster, PA: Childcraft Education Corp., c1989.
Summary: The story is set in wintertime. A young boy’s grandmother balks at knitting white woolen mittens, fearing that the boy will lose them in the snow and never find them again. He’s insistent, though, and finally she knits his new mittens of wool as white as snow. Sure enough, on his very first outing with the new mittens, he drops one in the snow. One by one, a cast of curious animals burrow into the mitten to stay warm. A mole, then a hare, then a hedgehog, an owl, a badger, a fox, and finally a great, brown bear all squeeze into the lost mitten to stay warm. Last to wedge itself into the mitten is a tiny field mouse, which perches atop the great bear’s nose. The mouse’s paws tickle the bear’s nose, who gives a tremendous sneeze, causing the
animals to be blown out of the mitten and scattered higgledy-piggledy in the snow. The now hugely stretched-out mitten shoots up into the air, where the boy sees it silhouetted against the blue sky. He grabs it and returns home to his grandmother, bearing both white mittens, although one is mysteriously much larger than the other.
Cultural origins and how identified: The tale is Ukrainian, based on Brett's title information. Another version by Alvin Tresselt also cites the tale as Ukrainian.
Audience: I would tell this to children ages 3 and up, and their families, in either library or school environments.
Notes on adaptation for telling: I adapted the story by adding a repetitive animal chorus as each new animal tries to squeeze into the mitten: “There’s no ROOM in here!” I’ve done this
with my preschoolers and they love to chime in and help tell the story. Another way to enhance the story is to use a mitten into which little animal finger puppets can "crawl"; this is also fun for younger children.