In addition, on the blue pages the illustrations were all in black and white and on the white pages the illustrations were mostly black with little bits of color. It added a little bit of pop to the very simple illustrations. Another small touch I enjoyed with the illustrations was that every other page was a turquoise-blue color. I also enjoyed that majority of the illustrations were in black and white with pops of color here and there.

I also really enjoyed the illustrations, even though they were simple, they were very effective in telling the story. The idea that the all the animals generously made room for all the animals to fit into the tiny glove in the extreme cold weather even though there was not nearly enough room. This first reason why I liked it was the plot. I had never heard of this story before but I heard it was popular in the genre of traditional literature so I thought I would read it.

'From cave paintings to Norwegian sleighs, to Japanese gardens, I study the traditions of the many countries I visit and use them as a starting point for my children's books.I really enjoyed this traditional story for many reasons. Together with her husband, Joe Hearne, who is a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Jan visits many different countries where she researches the architecture and costumes that appear in her work. 'I'm delighted and surprised when fragments of these beautiful images come back to me in my painting.'Travel is also a constant inspiration.

'It was overwhelming to see the room-size landscapes and towering stone sculptures, and then moments later to refocus on delicately embroidered kimonos and ancient porcelain,' she says. The detail in my work helps to convince me, and I hope others as well, that such places might be real.'As a student at the Boston Museum School, she spent hours in the Museum of Fine Arts. Now I try to recreate that feeling of believing that the imaginary place I'm drawing really exists.

She says, 'I remember the special quiet of rainy days when I felt that I could enter the pages of my beautiful picture books. During the summer her family moves to a home in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts.As a child, Jan Brett decided to be an illustrator and spent many hours reading and drawing. Jan lives in a seacoast town in Massachusetts, close to where she grew up. With over thirty four million books in print, Jan Brett is one of the nation's foremost author illustrators of children's books.

The mitten a ukrainian folktale