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I have loved many folk tales from around the world and one of my favourites is the Ukrainian folk tale “The Mitten.” In that story, a child loses a mitten on a wintery walk and a number of animals seek to keep warm by creeping into the mitten until finally there is one too many and the mitten explodes. As storytellers we love to borrow ideas from one another so I began thinking about patterning “The Mitten” with the tale of a little boy bringing a new baby’s snuggly from home to school for show and tell. As he walks to school, friends keep adding items to the snuggly until—when he’s ready to show it to the class—it explodes. Todd starts out with just his teddy—Banjo Bear. But surely there’s room as well for a library book, a recess snack, a jar of polliwogs, a stray kitten, and the cup Miss Bale has left out on the playground. Oh no…! Miss Bale is handy with a needle and thread though, and she has no trouble mending the snuggly that burst its seams.
The Snuggly is available from House of Anansi Press