Woven of the World

Katey Howes's Woven of the World, a rhythmic picture book for 5 year olds, follows a little girl who's learning to weave right round the globe and back through time.

What happens

She's sitting at a big loom beside the grown-up who's teaching her, working the pedal and passing the shuttle. As she listens to the loom's clack and swish, she starts to imagine the stories it's singing.

And off the verse goes, from one faraway place to the next. There's silk thread coaxed from a white cocoon. There's linen spun from flax for a pharaoh. There's a whole city packed with looms, nomads who carry their loom wherever they roam, and a girl in the mountains with her loom tied to a tree.

Every verse ends up back at the loom. The refrain (bobbin and heddle, foot pedal, no slack) comes round again and again, which makes it SO lovely to read aloud. Little ones will be joining in by the second go.

The poem itself is short and quite gentle, the kind of thing that works beautifully at bedtime. Its big idea is a warm one. By the end, the girl realises that all of us are like tapestries, made from lots of different threads.

Then there's a whole extra layer at the back for curious grown-ups and older siblings. Each of the places in the poem gets its own short, clear note. You'll find out how silk was a closely guarded secret in China, how Egyptian linen was even used as money and what the Fulani people of West Africa weave on their travelling looms. There are notes on Uzbek ikat dyeing, Peruvian backstrap looms and Coast Salish weaving too.

It's honest back there as well. The note on colonial weaving says plainly that settlers in the Americas pushed Indigenous people off their land, often violently, and that a lot of weaving knowledge was lost. That's a big thing to talk about with a five-year-old, so you might save that page for another day. Or it might be exactly the conversation your child is ready for.

If you've got a crafty little one who loves to knit, sew or plait, this one's a treat. Have you ever tried a simple weave on a bit of cardboard together? This might just make you want to!

What to read next

If they like the idea of stories hiding in threads, you could pair it with João by a Thread. A little boy's blanket unravels into dream rivers and mountains, and then he has to stitch it back together out of words.