YAZZY'S AMAZING YARN
by
CATHEY GRAHAM NICKELL
Illustrated by Emily Calimlim
Genre: Children's Picture Book, Ages 4-8
Publisher: Twenty-Eight Creative
Date of Publication: August 1, 2019
Number of Pages: 32
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Yazzy is a creative girl, always sketching out her next adventure. She loves yarn, and she loves to knit! Her neighborhood park is dull and rusty, but Yazzy has a grand plan.
With a little help from her friends, Yazzy’s knitted wonders transform Penny Park into a fuzzy rainbow of warmth and color. What yarn-tastic idea will Yazzy think of next?
The book includes a “History of Yarn Bombing” page for readers who are not familiar with this creative and whimsical type of art.
“As a teacher, it's refreshing to find a book that exposes children to an alternative art form. I'm inspired by Yazzy's story, and I know my students will be, too.” -- Deborah Horwitz, Art Teacher, The Emery/Weiner School, Houston, Texas.
I've been amazed since knitting has blown back into our lives like a refreshing cool wind after summer. So, a children's book about knitting sounded great to me, especially because it is something different for a child to do.
YAZZY'S AMAZING YARN is even better than great. It's a story about a kind hearted girl who doesn't stop at teaching her friends how to knit. Rather, it tells a story which includes the yarn bomb movement in a way that is fun and philanthropic.
I'm not going to tell you what yarn bombing is, but I will tell you that it will be something that your child will love to see, and, though they won't know it, it will plant the seeds of ideas that they can help make things better in their lives, and in the lives of others, and that they may be able to even use their hands to do so.
The illustrations in this book are delightful. As with many things knitted, many colors are used. Even better though, is that creativity is used. When you consider what something would look like covered in yarn, your imagination might be limited. But YAZZY'S AMAZING YARN illustrations stretch that imagination with great bursts of color, delightfully placed about in Yazzy's world.
Girls might bond with YAZZY'S AMAZING YARN more, because the main characters are girls. However, the book does a good job of also showing a diverse world, populated by both boys and girls, women and men. In fact, I loved how Yazzy was able to talk to a grown man and show him the beauty of the world she created.
Also, there is a great explanation of the birth of yarn bombing in the back of the book.
Highly recommend! Thank you to the publisher and author for providing a copy for an honest opinion.
Cathey Nickell is a busy author and elementary school speaker, having presented at more than seventy schools to date. Yazzy’s Amazing Yarn is her second children’s book about creativity and outside-the-box artistic endeavors. She is also the author of Arthur Zarr’s Amazing Art Car, which was awarded first place by the Texas Association of Authors in the category of Children’s Picture Books-All Ages. Cathey lives with her husband, Kevin, in Houston, where they raised their four children.
Emily Calimlim, while not a knitting whiz herself, loves creating art with humorous and
lively watercolor pictures for children. She lives in Houston with her fiancé, George, and silly studio bird, Simon. Emily spends her days capturing her ideas and imagination with paint and pencil.
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