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THE FARAWAY DRAWER by Harriett Diller

THE FARAWAY DRAWER

by Harriett Diller & illustrated by Andrea Shine

Pub Date: Sept. 1st, 1996
ISBN: 1-56397-190-9
Publisher: Boyds Mills

Diller (Grandaddy's Highway, 1993, etc.) shows how a sweater is more than an article of clothing to the young girl who narrates. The beautiful sweaters her great-grandmother knit in the intricate patterns of Scandinavia, kept in the drawer, are the places from which journeys of the imagination lift off. A green sweater with Norwegian dancing ladies leads the girl to see herself costumed in that country's national garb; one of blue-and-white Swedish weaving takes her to the sea and into the sky; a red one with diamond-shaped bumps takes her to the Red Planet; a sweater with black, crow-like stitches allows her to hear bird cries. The girl rejects the prosaic names her mother applies to the sweaters, allowing the spell of the handiwork to fuel her fanciful excursions, common enough behavior while looking through such possessions and real enough so that the imagined coldness of the last place she visits sends her out of the fantasies and back to the warmth of home. The spare, lyrical text catches the mood of such dreamy days, perfectly complemented by the realistic watercolor illustrations. (Picture book. 4-8)