Quick Look
- A bright and inspiring picture book with a message of sustainability
- Shares the concept of the wool life cycle, shearing, spinning, dying and knitting, with young children in an engaging, easy-to-understand way
- A charming seasonal tale with simple, lyrical text inspired by author Dawn Casey’s life in rural England
- Nari’s story is brought to life with luminous illustrations by Korean illustrator Stila Lim
- Delight in the seasonal details of Nari’s family farm and the countryside around it – playful animals, blooming wildflowers, buzzing bumblebees and blossoming trees
Nari cares for a little lamb on her farm. With her family's help, she turns its fleece into a cosy scarf, until the scarf is ready for the compost heap. A luminous picture book exploring creation and recycling through a simple, lyrical story.
Description
Nari lives on a small farm with hens and bees and apple trees, and cares for a little lamb of her own. The seasons turn and Nari's lamb grows into a fine sheep with a fleece that is ready to shear. Nari and her family use traditional skills to transform the fleece into a cosy scarf, as they shear, spin, dye and knit. But as Nari grows older her beloved scarf becomes tattered -- it is ready to be recycled into compost for the farm with the help of some friendly worms.
Spin a Scarf of Sunshine is a simple, lyrical story which encourages young children to engage with the wool cycle and understand the basics of traditional crafts of natural spinning, dyeing, knitting and gardening. The luminous illustrations of the natural world will inspire children and adults alike to explore the simple beauty around them and connect them to the idea of sustainable living and knowing where our clothing comes from.
Reviews
'A family embraces the Earth and its resources in this Scottish import. In an appealing bucolic setting, a young girl named Nari feeds her lamb as they are surrounded by chicks, hens, and flowers... Delicate, colorful illustrations fill each page with pretty people, cute animals, and idyllic scenes. Nari and her sister are biracial, with an East Asian mom and White dad. An informative, easy-to-follow, pleasing lesson in readying wool for knitting.'
-- Kirkus Reviews
'What a delight! I think it's so amazing that these issues that I think of as so large and complex like fast fashion are being put into children's books to introduce them to different approaches. It's never too early to get our next generation of world savers' wheels turning about new solutions!'
-- KidLit is Lit blog
'Spin a Scarf of Sunshine is a book that our whole family absolutely loves. It is a new favorite for all ages, from my two-year-old brother to my nine-year-old sister, my parents, and me. In this book, you learn about how a girl named Nari cares for her baby sheep and spins its wool to make the yarn. And then she makes a scarf with it. Nari knits the scarf and enjoys wearing it and decides one day to let the scarf turn into compost. The book is nice and big and the pictures make you want to live in the country as that family does. It may also make you wish you had your own little lamb to snuggle.'
-- Xavier, age 5, for Kids Book Buzz
'Casey's picture book focuses on the beauty of a quiet cottage life full of farming and animals. She shows how clothing is created from sheep to wool to yarn to cloth in a way that shows how long it takes and how much dedication as well. The book celebrates the cycle of farm goods from animal to item and back to the soil. It also celebrates traditional crafting and a slow, full life in touch with the seasons. Her writing is simple and also offers the sounds of that activity or season. This is Lim's first picture book. She shows the beauty of cottage life and the countryside. Her watercolors fill the pages with rich outdoor colors, from early spring green grass to the bounty of autumn to snowball fights in winter. Each season is celebrated for its colors, its feel and its beauty.'
-- Imagination Soup Blog
'Have you ever read a book and just truly felt seen? Spin a Scarf of Sunshine brought me right back to childhood both in memories of carding and dying wool using gathered plants with my mom and then later as a Waldorf first grade teacher helping my students learn to knit their own scarves. My sons are now teenagers but from an early age they learned to make their own knitting needles and have knit hats, bags and scarves over the years. This beautiful book takes you through the full circle of sustainable living with the seasons.
[A] beautiful book that is such a reminder of my childhood, years as a Waldorf teacher and parent.'
-- Wandering Bookseller
'Casey's picture book focuses on the beauty of a quiet cottage life full of farming and animals. She shows how clothing is created from sheep to wool to yarn to cloth in a way that shows how long it takes and how much dedication as well. The book celebrates the cycle of farm goods from animal to item and back to the soil. It also celebrates traditional crafting and a slow, full life in touch with the seasons. Her writing is simple and also offers the sounds of that activity or season.
This is Lim's first picture book. She shows the beauty of cottage life and the countryside. Her watercolors fill the pages with rich outdoor colors, from early spring green grass to the bounty of autumn to snowball fights in winter. Each season is celebrated for its colors, its feel and its beauty.
A good beginning look at how clothing is made and what a sustainable life looks like.'
-- Waking Brain Cells
'It's sunny today, for the first time in what feels like forever- so I had to feature a book with a title this bright!
In Spin a Scarf of Sunshine we meet a little girl, Nari, as she helps feed a little lamb. As the lamb grows big and strong, so does its wool, which is shorn, come summer. From there we follow Nari as she goes though the steps to make that wool into a scarf. This, in itself, makes for a wonderful story. But what I love about this book is that it takes it one step further: we see her eventually put the scarf into their compost pile so that it can return to the earth as compost and help nurture the next generations of sheep. With a neat chart at the end showing the "wool cycle" from sheep to scarf, this is a book with a lot of potential in terms of class units and/or homeschooling!'
-- Picturebook Playdate, Instagram
'Do you know how wool is made? This gorgeous book takes you through the process with a sweet girl named Nari! I especially love these illustrations; all the yellows make me feel so happy!
Nari and her family live in a beautiful home with their many farm animals: hens, chicks, sheep, lambs. One special lamb in particular was Nari's. Eventually the lamb's fleece grew long enough to be made into clothing. The process of washing, brushing, spinning, and dyeing the wool is fascinating! When the yarn was all ready to be used, Nari knit it into a scarf for herself. As the years went by, the scarf got tattered up so it was time to part ways with it. But, instead of trashing or donating it, Nari does something a little different with her scarf that actually helps the environment!'
-- Oh The Books We Love, Instagram
'This lyrical story is vividly portrayed in large, two-page drawings by artist Stila Lim. Readers will feel that they are there on the farm, too.'
-- Vermont County Sampler
Author
Dawn Casey is the author of picture books and children's story collections inspired by the wonder of the natural world. Her work has won the Gold Nautilus Award for books that support conscious living and received an accolade from the American Folklore Society. Before becoming an author, Dawn worked in publishing and as a primary school teacher. Her picture books include Spin a Scarf of Sunshine and The Bumblebee Garden. Dawn lives with her husband, children and a tabby cat in Sussex, UK.
Stila Lim is an illustrator from South Korea. She studied Fine Art and graduated from Kingston University with a Master of Communication Design. She is the illustrator of Spin a Scarf of Sunshine, Little Blue Bunny and The Bumblebee Garden. Stila lives in Seoul with her family and tabby cat.
