Books to go with learning to weave
Here are the books I read to the kids while they were working on their fiber arts badge for Earth Scouts.
Best for the younger kids:
Charlie Needs a Cloak by Tomie dePaola. When Charlie notices that his old cloak is getting pretty ragged, he sets out to make a new one. He has to shear his sheep, and take the wool through the entire process of making a cloak, and it takes him a year to do it all.
Grandpa Bear’s Fantastic Scarf uses weaving as a metaphor for the idea of creating your own life story. Grandpa Bear has a scarf “as long as he is old” woven with many beautiful colors. He teaches his grandbear to weave together his life, with the overall message that good things happen, and bad things happen, but you choose how your life will be. It was a really beautiful story.
From Plant to Blue Jeans has large photographs for each stage of the production of blue jeans, from cotton plants all the way through to stores in the mall. The text is OK, but I actually didn’t read the text to the kids, and just showed them each of the pictures. They already had enough background knowledge to discuss each picture.
Longer/Better for Slightly Older Kids:
Arachne Speaks retells the greek myth of the weaver from Arachne’s point of view. A sophisticated version of the story, it’s best for older kids and didn’t keep the interest of my guys.
Fatima, The Spinner and the Tent is a fairy tale that begins in the Middle East and takes its heroine through a couple shipwrecks, being sold into slavery, and finally to China and the granting of her wish.
The Chief’s Blanket tells the tale of a young girl learning to be a weaver from her grandmother, and what she trades for the beautiful blanket she makes. It’s also a story about family love and care for the elderly.
Songs From the Loom: A Navajo Girl Learns to Weave is from the series “We Are Still Here: Native Americans Today” and it is the modern, real-life story of a girl learning from her grandmother.
And for the Hands On Practice:
You Can Weave: Projects for Young Weavers has lots of projects your children can try, with or without any purchased equipment.
I love these lists! Have you read Weaving the Rainbow (a picture book by George Ella Lyon). It has been a while since I read it but I remember enjoying it.