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Knit Your Bit: A World War I Story (2013)

by Deborah Hopkinson(Favorite Author)

3.82 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

039925241X (ISBN13: 9780399252419)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Putnam Juvenile

review 1: This is an entertaining story that helps children learn about an earlier time in U.S. history. While we've read several picture books together about WWII, this is one of the only ones we've seen that discusses WWI. I love that the narrative is short enought to keep the attention of younger children and the dialogue is often humorous. Who says that history has to be boring?The pen and ink with watercolor illustrations are colorful and cartoonish, making the story come to life for children. We really enjoyed reading this story together, and we loved the additional information at the end of the book about the actual events the story is based on as well as more information about supporting our military forces with knitted items.
review 2: Historical fiction base... mored on real events!Deborah tells the story of people back home supporting troops in WWI by knitting. Deborah creates characters to tell of one particular event held in NYC’s Central Park in the summer of 1918.She sets up the story with one particular family where Dad has gone to war and the son’s (main character and told in first person) desire to help support his dad. He cannot go fight but what can he do? Dad says staying home takes courage too.So our young hero, Mikey has to choose to be courageous in trying something new. Something he probably won’t be the best at since he is inexperienced.The illustrator does a nice job capturing the time period with clothing and hair styles. And boy can Mikey pout and frown with his arms crossed in refusal when first offered the opportunity to knit for the troops.The idea of boys knitting seems preposterous to him and he is not even dissuaded by his sister pointing out news articles of men-including fire fighters-knitting for the cause!But what his sister can’t accomplish, his girl classmates do as his pride gets him and some of his buddies in a contest to see who is better/faster at knitting. What was Mikey thinking?!Mom comes to the rescue teaching the three young men. But it is their hard work that will have to carry the day.After grumbling Mikey gets to work. He tells as the event approaches how he is getting pretty good at making socks while his buddies are having less success but at least keep trying.Deborah does a great job recreating the day so that children today could relate:Men, women and lots of girls are present and we can hear hesitant Nick whispering how they may “get laughed outta here.” Dan is distracted by the smell of food and wondering when it will be time to eat!Knitting starts and continues over a three day period. She includes anecdotes about some of the competitors but the spotlight is on her lead character as he deals with disappointment.One sock is done very well but the other one has a flaw that cannot be fixed without starting over. As he hits this low point and is “feeling miserable” he hears a returning soldier comment on the one perfect sock. Encouraging him to feel good about trying, the soldier then asks the boy if he has anyone over there. “All at once I missed Pop so much, my eyes stung. I wondered where he was…How could anything I do-little or big-really help?”The soldiers words bring him out of his thoughts as he tells Mikey how nice warm socks would have felt the past winter.As he starts to tear apart the partially completed sock the words sound that the time is up.The classmates all have smiles and although the girls won “fair and square”, Mikey assures the girls there are no hard feelings. “Naw. Just wait until next time.”But it is not the end of the story. The competition may be over but Mikey needs courage again. This time to approach the young soldier. What I did not say earlier is that the soldier had only one foot. So you know why Mikey wanted to find him: to give him the one perfect sock!I like the epilogue so to speak. His friends never knit again, his sister gets even better and makes hats for all the men in their Pop’s unit. And Mikey tells us he kept at it and finally knit a pair of socks for their dad.“He promised to wear them on the day he came home. And he did.”Finish with a hugging dad and son.Two pages in the back with notes about the real story of people knitting for WWI soldiers. Deborah included a song, a poster, and information on how you can get involved today with knitting for others in need.The end papers have photos of groups of children knitting and the famous sheep on the White House lawn. less

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