The Yellow Thread Adventure

J.G. Reade was Librarian of the Dalhousie Ocean Studies Programme, Dalhousie University, Halifax.

This book is a welcome change from the bold, bright, and brassy style of some contemporary works for children. It is a picture book, with a small amount of text, composed by two Dutch sisters who have collaborated often in the writing and illustrating of books for children. The designation “picture book” usually makes us think of a book with one large picture per page, but The Yellow Thread Adventure presents us with a different concept. Its story is told in two sequences of illustrations, placed one above the other on the page. The upper sequence (drawn by Margriet Heymans) follows the little girl Lena on her journey to Aunt Molli’s house, wearing a new yellow dress that Aunt Polli has knitted for her. Unbeknown to Lena, the dress snags on a nail by the door and unravels as she goes along. The lower sequence of pictures relates Aunt Polli’s finding of the yellow thread caught on the nail and her journey to Aunt Molli’s, knitting up the wool as she goes, remaking Lena’s dress. Aunt Polli is always a short distance behind her niece, but she is confronted by many of the same obstacles as Lena and faces the same delays.

The small size of the illustrations and the wealth of detail they contain really make this a book for individual, rather than group, use. The illustrations in this work are not merely for looking at, but for the discovery and observing of detail — Aunt Polli’s pudgy black-stockinged legs, for example, and her unsuitable ankle-strap high-heeled shoes. This work presents us also with a nice counterbalance in the trials and tribulations suffered by Lena and her aunt on their respective journeys. Aunt Polli must fend off a dog that had earlier befriended Lena; the aunt in turn is able to pacify a baby whom Lena had been unable to assist. Both Lena and Aunt Polli display strong personal characteristics and a concern for the creatures they meet on the road. Aunt Polli, in fact, is willing to tackle anything, in spite of her age and her tubbiness (and the unsuitable shoes!). Lena, too, though faced with adversity (she falls into a stream, is confronted by a howling baby, climbs trees, etc.) presses on, befriending the birds and animals that cross her path.

The Yellow Thread Adventure, certainly a refreshing change of pace as a children’s book, has genuine charm.