Jennifer Rosner - The Mitten String

Text copyright 2014 by Jennifer Rosner
Jacket art and interior illustrations copyright 2014 by Kristina Swarner

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rosner, Jennifer.
The mitten string / by Jennifer Rosner ; illustrated by Kristina Swarner. First edition. pages cm. Summary: Ruthie Tobers family is known for the beautiful, warm mittens they knit so when she and her mother meet a deaf woman and her baby and give them shelter, Ruthie decides to design very special mittens for them.
Trade paperback ISBN 978-0-385-37118-6 Library binding ISBN 978-0-375-97186-0 eBook ISBN 978-0-375-98173-9
[1. MittensFiction. 2. DeafFiction. 3. People with disabilitiesFiction. 4. JewsFiction.] I. Swarner, Kristina, illustrator. II. Title. PZ7.R719548Mit 2014 [E]dc23 2013018685

Random House Childrens Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

For Bunnie Rosner and Carol Corwinand for innovative mothers everywhere
J.R.
For Sara and Sam
K.S.

I t was said that Ruthie Tobers family warmed the hands of the entire village, because everyone who lived there, big and small, wore mittens knitted from Tober wool.

The Tobers sheep had the fluffiest wool in the region. On shearing days, friends and neighbors came to help Ruthies family clip and gather the soft, downy fleece.

The Tobers worked hard, scouring, picking, and carding the wool. Ruthie, who loved bright colors, prepared the pots for dyeing. When it was time for spinning, Ruthies mother stood at the great wheel and spun the wool into yarn.

Most nights, Ruthie and her mother sat together and knitted. Ruthie loved how their stitcheseach one a tiny knot of yarnadded up to form warm, cozy garments.

Ruthie especially enjoyed making mittens. She knitted plenty of extras in the smallest sizes, because she had noticed that many children lost mittens every winter.

Ruthie herself had lost some, her mother reminded her with a wink.

On market days, Ruthies parents loaded their wagon with bolts of cloth and heaping baskets of yarn to sell and trade. Ruthie took along a basket of her most colorful mittens.

One day, on the way home from market, Ruthies family came upon a woman standing with her baby at the side of the road. The woman did not speak to them. Instead, she held up a slate with a neatly printed message. Her husband had gone for help.

The Tobers invited the woman and her child to spend the night. Smiling gratefully, the woman wrote her name, BAYLA , and her babys name, AARON , on the slate.

Ruthie noticed a length of yarn wrapped around Baylas wrist. The yarn was the deepest blue Ruthie had ever seendeeper even than the special blue thread braided into the white tassels of her fathers prayer shawl. Ruthie imagined the mittens she could make with yarn like that!

Why doesnt Bayla speak? Ruthie asked her mother.

Bayla is deaf, her mother explained. She cannot hear, so she cannot speak. Luckily, she reads and writes. It is very wise of her to carry chalk and a slate.

Ruthie watched in amazement as Bayla communicated with Aaron using hand signs. To Ruthie, it looked as if Bayla were standing before an invisible spinning wheel, her words flowing from her fingers like delicate strands of yarn.

That night, Ruthie could not fall asleep. She wondered what it was like for Bayla, not hearing and not speaking. Was the silence peaceful? Or was it lonely? If Aaron needed her during the night, how would Bayla know?

Ruthie peered into their room. Bayla lay sleeping, one arm dangling over the side of the bed. The blue yarn was still looped around her wrist. From there, it trailed across the floor to the cradle, ending in a bow around Aarons tiny arm!

Ruthie remembered seeing a string trail through the villagefrom little Sarah Lowys sickbed to the synagogues holy ark. Ruthies mother had explained that the string carried the familys prayers for Sarah to get well again.