Co-Creations: Knit Together by Angela Dominguez

I LOVE TO DRAW.

MOM DOESN'T DRAW. MOM KNITS.

I THINK KNITTING IS MUCH BETTER THAN DRAWING.

WHY? BECAUSE YOU CAN WEAR IT.

Mother and daughter are both creative, but with a practical bent. Mom knits useful things, like a wool hat with a cat face and a scarf and mittens for her little daughter. It seems both of them like to walk on the cold and windy wintry beach together.

But the little girl decides that she need to learn to knit like Mom. Mom agrees to show her how to cast on the yarn and knit her stitches. Except knitting is not so easy for little hands. Soon the yarn is all in a tangle all over the floor.

No one is happy about that but their little dog, who thinks the yarn makes a great puppy toy.

Sensing a meltdown in the making, Mom tries a different tack.

WE COME UP WITH THE BEST IDEA.

WE'LL MAKE SOMETHING TOGETHER!

Daughter sets to drawing. trying to come up with the perfect design for Mom to knit. It has to be special, celebrating something that both of them love.

And after some frustrating failures, she comes up with the perfect design, The last page shows mother and daughter at the beach, watching the boats bouncing over the waves and wrapped in a knitted blanket with a beautiful sailboat design on the back.

Angela Dominguez' latest, Knit Together (Dial Books, 2015), captures just the right mood in her story of mother and daughter knit together in a common project which they can put to practical use together right away. Dominguez's black line and mixed media illustrations--ink, colored pencil, gouache, and digital color--full of movement, yet showing the affection between the two characters, tell her story well. There's plenty of gentle humor, with our girl having a bit of a sulk under the sofa table, drawing on its underside in frustration, and the antics of their little dog as he tries to get into all the action. A perfect tale for crafty parent and child to share, and right for a Mothers Day read as well.

Angela Dominguez is also the author of Maria Had a Little Llama / María Tenía Una Llamita (Pura Belpre Honor Books - Illustration Honor), Santiago Stays, and Let's Go, Hugo!, (see my reviews here).