Annie Hoot and the Knitting Extravaganza by Holly Clifton-Brown

Annie Hoot loves to knit. She knits jumpers, socks, hats and scarves. Alas her friends the other owls are not too keen on her brightly patterned creations. They suggest her work might be better appreciated in the rainforest which is of course filled with colourful birds. Alas her knitted umbrellas quickly become very soggy. The rainforest birds suggest she should travel to the plains of Africa. It is so cold there at night so Annie knits a very long, warm scarf for a giraffe and a huge jazzy jumper for the elephant but of course during the day these are way too hot. Next stop - the North Pole. Her knitting is perfect but Annie is homesick. Luckily there is a lovely surprise waiting for her when she returns to her owl friends.

Now for a warning. There is a huge error in this book - Annie goes to the North Pole - to the Arctic. There are NO penguins in the Arctic - they live in the South in Antarctica! It might be fun to read this book with your class or preschool group and then see if any children can spot the error! With an older group you could talk about the editing process used for books and even compose a letter to the publisher perhaps. 

This book also has a transport thread (pardon the pun) as we see Annie using a hot air balloon, a small sailing boat and a parachute/hang glider. 

My blogging hero Betsy Bird regularly talks about the way the act of knitting is shown in picture book illustrations. I am fairly sure she would not like the way little Annie, the owl, holds her needles but putting that aside this is a sweet story. I'm guessing Betsy has not seen this book because it is from the UK and is now long out of print. You can see more books by Holly Clifton-Brown here. I have added these two books to my 'to read' list.

A new Australian picture book which links perfectly with Annie Hoot and the Knitting Extravaganza is Frank's Red Hat. I can show you the cover but I cannot talk about this book just yet as it was a title from the CBCA (Children's Book Council of Australia) picture book judging.

I have talked about knitting in picture books in previous posts.