I have read many folktales from around the world, but this is the first time that I have read a folktale from Ukraine. A fun and cumulative tale is The Mitten, and as such perfect for an entertaining read-aloud (especially in winter), with accompanying illustrations that both realistically and imaginatively present and and show a heavy and snowy Ukrainian winter in all its white glory, as well as the diverse animals that one by one find refuge, shelter and warmth in Nicki's mitten. However, my minor quibbles that there is no list of specific tale sources and titles quite notwithstanding, both textually and illustratively, The Mitten is indeed truly magical, sweetly entertaining and yes, even gently humorous (with a rabbit, a mole, a European hedgehog, an owl, a badger, a fox and a bear sharing the warmth of young Nicki's lost white mitten, stretching and restretching it, until finally a diminutive mouse makes the bear sneeze, dislodging all of the animals in one twirling swoop).

But while I have indeed and oh so much enjoyed reading about the genesis of Jan Brett's personal version, of her The Mitten, I do kind of wish that instead of just telling us (showing readers) how she used several different Ukrainian folktale versions of the mitten story and why she chose to include and not include various aspects (such as the fact that she obviously did not want to write a story where someone actually ends up shooting at the sheltering animals), Jan Brett had also listed the specific and actual titles and literary sources of the tales of which she had made use (to create her own adapted and retold version of The Mitten). Jan Brett's The Mitten is according to her informative author's note a combination, an original fusion of several similar Ukrainian folktales (in some of these versions, a group of shivering, cold animals find refuge in a discarded pot, whilst in others, it is a huntsman's lost mitten providing shelter, who then unfortunately also starts shooting at the animals inhabiting his mitten when he goes out into the forest looking for it and discovers that it has become a winter den for a variety of fauna).

The mitten a ukrainian folktale book