This book was a gift from my friend Judith, and I've read it through several times but had never logged it in Goodreads before.

I've been reading through some of the small books I have lying around just as fun little detours from my main reads.

The book is so sweet and the illustrations are absolutely gorgeous. I would definitely recommend this as a gift to anyone with a textile hobby - knitters, spinners, dyers, weavers, seamstresses and tailors - of any age. And of course any child, as it teaches the very satisfying lesson that nothing appears out of thin air, which I think is quite valuable and overlooked these days.

Fun Fact: my cat took an interest in this book as it sat on my side table for whatever reason, so I read it out loud to have her like storytime.

I'm going to die alone lol ( )

Pelle is a Swedish boy who owns his own lamb. In the spring, he shears his sheep. He takes his wool from person to person as they transform the wool into a new suit. A sweet look into the process of making clothing. The narrative is structured as a kind of twist on the Old Woman and Her Pig, in which every request from Pelle to a new craftsman is met with a request for him to help them in some way.

Pelle has a lamb whose coat grows longer and longer, while Pelle's suit grows shorter! Pelle shears his lamb but he doesn't know what to do next. Pelle offers to do chores and run errands for his family and neighbors in exchange for their help to card, spin, dye and weave the wool. When the fleece has finally been made a fine blue cloth, Pelle asks one last favor -- for the tailor to make it into a smart new suit.

"Thank you very much for my new suit, little lamb.", 25 February 2016

This review is from: Pelle's New Suit (Hardcover)
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This is one of those children's books that could become a family heirloom as it's utterly gorgeous! Doesn't include any of the fairies that often feature in Elsa Beskow's work: this is the more down to earth tale of little Pelle, owner of a lamb, who is growing out of his clothes.
"The lamb's coat grew longer and longer, but Pelle's coat only grew shorter."
So Pelle shears it, and by doing odd jobs for family and friends in return, gets it carded, spun, dyed, woven and made into a new suit.
In the process are some lovely images of 19th century Swedish life and home decor (put me in mind of Carl Larsson's lovely pictures of his family.) ( )

When Pelle - the eponymous little hero of this classic Swedish picture-book, first published in 1912 as Pelles nya kläder - begins to outgrow his suit, he looks to his lamb for the solution to his problem. Shearing the lamb of its fleece, Pelle appeals to his grandmother for help in carding the wool - something she is willing to do, if he will weed her carrot patch for her. Having obtained the carded wool, Pelle next appeals to his other grandmother, asking her help in spinning the wool into yarn. She too is willing, if Pelle will tend to her cows for her. And so it goes, with Pelle exchanging his services - from running errands to babysitting his sister - for the skilled aid of the adults around him, until finally, he has a brand new suit!

The narrative of this one reminded me a bit of a folktale - the kind in which the hero or heroine must arrange a series of exchanges, in order to eventually gain what they want - with the added benefit of providing an educational 'summary' of how cloth and clothing was made, before the advent of mass production. The simple text appears below each page-sized illustration, on the right, with a facing page that is entirely blank. Such an abundance of white space might be overwhelming in some books, but here the overall effect is one of unrushed peace - a feeling well-suited to this gentle tale, with its sweet illustrations. Recommended to anyone who enjoys Elsa Beskow's artwork, or is looking for a gentle tale that emphasizes the importance of give and take, and working for what you want. ( )