De Verrassing
By: Sylvia van Ommen
Publisher: Lemniscaat b.v., Holland, 2003 (Our version "La Sorpresa", Italy, A la ortilla del viento, 2013)
Format: Hardcover
A labour of love
With "De Verrassing" you can judge the book by the cover: It´s colorful, funny (a sheep riding a scooter!) and the title is written in "yarn" - it gives important clues to the reader of what is to come. Open the book, and you find rows and rows of colorful bottles. The reader´s curiosity is awakened: What are these for?
The lead character of this book is a fluffy, white sheep. The first three pictures show him weighing in, studying himself in the mirror and measuring himself. He rides his scooter to the store, buys red color and colors his wool. Just when the reader might suspect that this is a very self-absorbed, vain sheep, he shaves all the wool off. And then his labour of love starts: The wool has a very special purpose, to make his friend happy.
As a reader, we do not know this yet. We see the sheep working hard: By scooter, he transports all his wool to the spinning-wheel, he skeins the yarn, and then he knits, knits, knits...we see him get tired, but he keeps working. Finally, the gift is done! He wraps it, and again rides his scooter to gift it to his friend. (If you wonder who the friend is, read the book - it´s a sweet and funny surprise!) The friend´s smile when he recieves the gift makes the sheep blush and smile. His joy of giving is obvious to the reader.
"De Verrassing" is made in bright colors. van Ommen´s drawings are very charming. The sheep is sweet-looking and easy to like, and the supporting characters are funny and creative: In what other children´s books do you find a chain-smoking pink poodle? Most of the story is told in two-picture spreads, apart from two pages where action is shown in four panels: the shaving of the wool and the knitting of the sweater, illustrating that these are time-consuming tasks.
I´ve had a lot of fun mediating this book to children. They always wonder what the sheep is making and who the packet is for, and are truly delighted when they discover the secret. Knitting has been, and still is, an important part of the culture in many countries. This book covers all stages from untreated wool to finished sweater in a fun way, and is such also a great introduction to working with wool.
"De Verrassing" is very clearly a labour of love. A feel-good book for knitters and crafters of all ages!
