September 25, 2006
Knitting-Themed "Reader"
Carrie Measures Up
by Linda Williams Aber, Joy Allen (Illustrator)
In Carrie Measures Up, the main character is waiting for her grandmother to arrive, and trying to decide which sweater her grandmother made that she wants to wear. The grandmother is a big knitter and knits all the time and everything. When the grandmother arrives, she enlists Carrie's help with a tape measure and instructions to secretly get measurements needed for the items on her "to knit" list. Carrie measures and measures and measures... and then comes up with all kinds of things that could be knit that are not on her Grandmother's list. The grandmother teaches her how to knit, and they go to the yarn store, and soon Carrie is all set. Her grandmother teaches her the basics, and Carrie decides to make her grandmother a scarf for her birthday. She secretly figures out the measurements for the scarf and begins knitting. And knitting. And knitting. But somewhere along the way, she forgets to check her measurements. Carrie Measures Up, is part of the Math Matters line of books. It's a cute knitting story, a great story in terms of introducing young knitters to the craft, and it's cool that there's an easy-to-follow real-world math tie-in as well as a gentle lesson to be learned about what happens when you don't pay attention to measurements.
