Review on 🧶 Optimal Yarn by Amber Perez

This book is truly a masterpiece. My daughters love it and so do I, but probably for different reasons. They love the sweet, funny story of a girl who knits sweaters for everyone in her small town and ends up defeating a mean archduke with a long mustache. Good stuff. I also love this book because it has so many levels; it's easy for adults to appreciate yarn as a metaphor for luck. Klassen's powerful illustrations show us the dark, snowy landscape at the beginning of the book. Annabelle then finds a box of yarn in this dreary background and starts knitting sweaters for everyone. We see her kindness and joy transform the bully Nate, his dog, her grumpy teacher Mr. Norman, and a noisy classroom. We see people for whom she knits sweaters that are attached to each other with threads of yarn. People look happier and more open-minded. The landscape brightens. Then the archduke comes in and tries to buy her happiness and then tries to steal it, but of course it doesn't work. He then tries to curse her into suffering the same lack of happiness that haunts him and his family, but of course that doesn't stop her happiness from finding her again. I love this message and I love this book.