Something from Nothing

by Phoebe Gilman

Joseph's grandfather transforms his blanket many times over the years, but what can be done when the final item is lost? Gilman's version of this Yiddish folk tale won the 1993 Ruth Schwartz Award.

When Joseph was a baby, his grandfather made him a wonderful blanket. But as Joseph grows older, the blanket becomes tattered and worn. Throw it out! cries Joseph's mother. Luckily, Grandpa is an extraordinary tailor. He can fix anything! And so with a snip! snip! here, and a few stitches there, Grandpa transforms the treasured blanket into a jacket, a vest, a Sabbath tie, a handkerchief, and finally a beautiful button. But when the button is lost, even Grandpa can't help. After all, how can you make something from nothing?In a rich and loving portrait of shtetl life, Phoebe Gilman presents a traditional Jewish folktale about family love and ingenuity that will warm the hearts of readers young and old.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Jewish, Fiction, Canada, Family, Judaism

32 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

What can I tell you about myself? I like to make up stories and draw pictures. I like to go ice skating, to the movies and I love reading books.

I was born and grew up in the Bronx, New York. My Mother loved to read so it was only natural that my brothers and I got our own library cards as soon as we were able to print our names. My favorite books were fairy tales. When the pictures didn't match the images that the words had painted in my head, I would cover them up with my hands. I still do that.

I prefer the words to the pictures, which is a little odd since I think of myself as an artist rather than a writer. All of my formal training has been in art. I went to The High School of Art and Design. From there, it was a short skip and a jump over to The Art Student's League, after a brief detour to Hunter College. I spent fifteen years at the Ontario College of Art, teaching others how to draw and paint. It still surprises me to be called a writer.

As soon as I was able, I started to travel. I like meeting new faces and going to new places. One of the nice things about being an artist is that it is a very portable profession. I have lived for extended periods of time in both Europe and Israel.

Shortly after coming to Canada in 1972, I met and married Brian Bender. We have three children, Ingrid, Jason and Melissa, two granddaughters, Ariana and Emily and a cat, Minoo.

It was because of my daughter, Ingrid, that I became an author. When her balloon burst on a tree branch, I wished the tree would magically sprout balloons. It didn't...what sprouted was an idea in my head. Why not write a story about a tree that blossoms balloons? And that's how I came to write my first book, The Balloon Tree.

It is not how I came to be published. That took fifteen years and umpty zillion rejection slips to accomplish.

My advice to any aspiring author is:
•Get a balloon and let it go.
•Read. Read. READ!
•Write. Write. WRITE! (To do anything well takes practice.)
•Don't give up. Keep on trying.
•Don't be afraid of criticism. Learn from it.

From the author's website

Reviews

[کیه!؟ · Rating 4 out of 5]

بسم الله...

رمزگشایی

شبکه مستند، مستندی را پخش می کند با نام "چگونه ساخته میشود؟" که برنامه ی مورد علاقه ی مشترک من و پسر چهار ساله ام است.
در این برنامه هر بار ساختن هشت چیز را نشان میدهد. یکی از شیرین ترین و جذابترین بخش هایش بخش ساخت مواد بازیافتی است؛ مثلا چطور از قطعات موبایل های قدیمی ما طلا، نقره و پالادیوم خالص خارج میشود تا تبدیل به انگشتر جواهرنشان یکی از معروفترین برندهای طلاسازی دنیا شوند یا اره های از رده خارج چوب بری، چطور تبدبل به یک کارد سرآشپز حرفه ای میشوند یا لاستیک های مستهلک تبدیل به صندلی و گلدان و...

این برنامه به من و پسرم یاد میدهد منابع زمین محدود است و اگر قرار باشد هر چیزی که خراب یا مستهلک شد تبدیل به زباله شود، هم منابع زمین زود تمام میشود و هم زمین به جای مکانی برای زیست انسان ها تبدیل به یک زباله دانی میشود.

حالا کتاب "یک داستان محشر" هم حکایت این مستند تلوزیونی است؛ ژوزف کوچولو به پتویی که پدربزرگ برای تولدش دوخته خیلی علاقه دارد بنابراین دوست ندارد آن را دور بیندازد. پتوی ژوزف در هر مرحله ای از رشد او تبدیل به یک چیز دوست داشتنی میشود و بچه ها با خواندن کتاب یاد میگیرند به هر چیزی که کهنه یا خراب میشود به چشم یک زباله نگاه نکنند و میشود حتی به چیزهایی که زباله به نظر میرسند، فرصتی برای نو شدن داد!

قهرمان فرصت های دوباره در این داستان پدربزرگ است و علاوه بر تصویرسازی پر از جزئیات، داستان زیرزمینی تصویری دیگری از خانواده موش ها در حاشیه پایینی کتاب است که برای بچه ها جالب تر از تصاویر اصلی کتاب است.

تازه! اگر گفتید چرا اسم این کتاب "یک داستان محشر" است؟!


30/9/99
یلدای کرونایی

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is so sweet! I love the idea of the story, to continue to find uses something dear, to make it evolve throughout the years, to continue to sew love and family togetherness with each version. The illustrations are warm and full of detail (I love the corresponding mice family!). This is based on a traditional Jewish folktale and I am not sure how many liberties were taken in this retelling. The only false note here, for me, is that it didn't make sense that the boy's mother would continually tell him to throw away his blanket (or coat, or vest, etc. etc.) when each was outgrown or became tattered. I think any woman of the day would have had plenty of good "upcycling" ideas for old material. (Maybe this mother just wanted to encourage the boy to run to his grandpa to fix it.) That quibble aside, I thought it was a lovely book and definitely recommend it.
For a Latino spin on the story, see also Maya's Blanket/La Manta de Maya.

[Ankit Saxena · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Something from nothing" has been written from the POV of a little child who always seek for better in his given things and wanna keep them safe. It is a very good telling of morality that children must be taught about keeping their things safe and should be responsible for their all things.

Joseph was keen on maintaining the blanket given to him by his grandfather, who himself sewn it. And year after year when that blanket started detoriating from it form he wanted his grandfather to maintain it in any form so that he continue to use it in some manner.



Story started with blanket to end on a sewn button. His GrandPa made him keep his memory of his childhood alive by making something from nothing (anything useless in its original form).

Such an amazing Jewish Folktale to read with illustrations and enjoying it bit by bit till end.

[Lisa Vegan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully illustrated with great detail (I do love the mice as much as the people!) and a truly lovely story (from a Jewish folktale) with an important message. As the last line in the book says, it’s a wonderful story.

[Tayebe Ej · Rating 2 out of 5]

چرا وقتی اسم کتاب انقدر قشنگ و با ربط به موضوع کتابه باید یه چیز دیگه ترجمه بشه؟؟ خلاقیت همیشه هم خوب نیست
اسم اصلی کتاب هست:
Something from Nothing
بازنویسی شده ی یک داستان قدیمی یهودی درباره ی استفاده کردن دوباره از چیزهایی که ظاهرا دیگه به درد نمیخورن

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite picture books. All children should hear this story, and they should hear it more than once.

Quite a few topics are addressed in relatively few pages.
• the Jewish culture
• "waste not want not"
• the job of a tailor
• family with close association to grandparents

The illustrations add depth to the story and introduce another storyline -- one about a family of mice who live under the floorboards and take advantage of anything that falls their way.

[جَنّات · Rating 3 out of 5]

آموزش استفاده دوباره از وسایلی که کهنه شدن،
و اینکه صرفا چیزی وقتی در ظاهر به دردنخور شد سریع بدیم بره...درباره‌ش فکر کنیم :)
تصویرگری‌ش هم جوریه که بچه ها باهاش یه دنیایی تو ذهنشون میسازن و درباره‌ش فکر میکنن...

[Julie G · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a children's picture book, adapted from a Jewish folktale. The illustrations made me want to dance the hora and my 4-year-old can't hear it enough times. Lovely!

[Shoshanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG just fill my life with Jewish picture books please!!!

[Kurt · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the past couple of years whenever I would check goodreads' recommendations for me I would notice this book as its top recommendation in my children's category based on other children's books I have read.

Back when my children were very young I used to read a lot of children's books to them. I still fondly recall and cherish all the hours I spent reading to them at bedtime. But, children grow up, and like so many good things in life, the wonderful moments quickly become only fading memories. As the poet Robert Frost said:

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Nowadays, I don't read a lot of children's books. My youngest child is nearly 22 and will be getting married in a couple of months. But I hope that maybe someday I will get to relive those cherished memories of bedtime reading with my yet-to-be-born grandchildren.

I noticed that this book had very high reviews, both here on goodreads and on Amazon. Then I discovered that my small-town local library had a copy of it. So, today I enjoyed a few minutes sitting on the couch in the children's section of my library reading this fine book and marveling at its beautiful illustrations.

This is exactly the kind of book I would have loved as a kid, would have loved reading to my kids, and hope to someday read to my grandkids. It really is just about as perfect of a children's book as I can imagine.

Thank you to author and illustrator Phoebe Gilman, and also to whoever devised the goodreads recommendation algorithm.

[CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this folktale! The repetition of the boy going back to grandpa and getting something new every time from the old blanket material was fun! It was predictable in a circular way (you know he's going to get something new) but exciting in that you don't know what his grandpa was going to make next! Lots of cool Jewish cultural details (clothing, food, etc, and in one scene the family is sitting down to a Sabbath dinner) and lovely illustrations!

My favourite part, though, was the second story going on along the bottom of the page, where a family of mice are making use of the scraps from the boy's blanket. It's an awesome reinforcement of the main story, and it's just really cute.

And the ending is great.

[saeed Tehrani pooya · Rating 4 out of 5]

داستانی بسیار کوتاه با مفاهیمی بسیار بلند برای کودکان. مفاهیمی مثل دوری از اسراف، قناعت، اهمیت و هویت تولید و... . اگرچه متن کتاب خیلی کوتاه به نظر می‌رسد ولی به علت دارا بودن تصاویر بسیار متنوع با جزئیات زیاد، پدر و مادر و حتی کودک می‌توانند با تخیل خود به داستان پر و بال بیشتری بدهند.
.
.
برشی از متن کتاب:
یک روز مادر گفت: «ژوزف، رو اندازت را نگاه کن. زشت شده، کهنه شده، پاره پوره و پوسیده شده. دیگر وقتش رسیده است که بیندازیمش دور»
ژوزف گفت: «پدربزرگ می‌تواند درستش کند.» پدر بزرگ رو انداز را برداشت این ورش کرد آن ورش کرد و همان طور که قرچ قرچ می‌کرد و تند و تند سوزن می‌زد، می‌گفت:«هو...م م م. از این رو انداز فقط به اندازه ای مانده که ازش چی جور کنم؟؟ ... یک کت محشر!

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I genuinely thought I had missed out on this modern classic picture book. Turns out I hadn't. I am sure I read this book as a child. I remember the different things they made the blanket into, and I remembered following the family of mice along the way.

Rereading a forgotten story from my childhood was genuinely a pleasure. The story definitely holds up. The illustrations are beautiful, the emphasis on reusing when we can is important, the family focus feels good, and the message of the importance of storytelling was a great conclusion.

Definitely recommended!

[Luisa Knight · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful!

I really enjoyed the story. The little boy is gifted a blanket from his grandfather that he simply can’t part with years later when it becomes old and torn. So his grandpa repurposes it.

And the mice get the scraps! (It’s so fun having a little sub story - no literally, a sub story!). Ha, ha.

Illustrations are so delightful. This one is a keeper for sure!

Ages: 3 - 8

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE THIS STORY! My daughter received this as a little child and we have read it over and over. The illustrations are so beautiful, you can’t stop looking at the beautifully done images. The story is incredibly touching. One of my most memorable picture books from my kids childhood.

[Dawn Nolt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adorable children’s book.

[Taylor Nicke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember this book from my childhood! I always loved this story and illustrations

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful retelling of a Jewish folktale. This is the story of Joseph and the wonderful blanket his grandfather made for him. as Joseph gets older, so does the blanket. And Grandfather gets put to work to "fix it"; Grandfather remakes the blanket into smaller and smaller pieces of clothing. At the end, Joseph loses the last piece of clothing made from the blanket (a button). then Joseph writes about his blanket, making something from nothing.

There are actually two stories here, because if you look closely at the pictures, there is a mouse couple living under the floorboards who clothe their family and adorn their home with the scraps from Joseph's blanket. The mice are making something from nothing. By the way, I was greatly disappointed to find the online readings of the book don't show the mice drawings at the bottom of the pages.

I use this story with first and second grade students by having them compare and contrast it with Joseph Had a Little Overcoat by Simms Tayback. The students always amaze me with their comparisons -- some remember the tiniest changes, while others describe the differences in the layout of the books. We are able them to discuss whether the changes are important.

[Marina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a retelling Jewish folktale which presents a little boy who has a favorite blanket and his mother tells him that it is getting old and rugged and that it was time to get rid of it. Joseph tells his mother that his grandfather could fix it. Yes, this book is a treasure. It is a beautiful and timeless tale. Joseph's grandfather is filled with love and wisdom. The flows of the words are poetically magical. The illustrations are beautiful. This book is a delightful to read with a child. In my opinion every classroom should own this book. This book can be used for learning the repetition. Also, the book can also be used to illustrate the sequence of the story with its elements.

[Alida · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! Another favourite of the grandchildren.

[Dianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a fantastic book! The family relationship, the special blanket, the making do, the mice! Highly recommended.

[Mariyam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do you have something that someone in your family or friend gave you that has a story behind it? Have you kept it with you because it is something meaningful to you? In this book, there is a boy named Joseph who receives a special blanket from his grandfather when he is young. Joseph cherishes this blanket and keeps it close to him. However, as he grows older, the blanket begins to wear out. His grandfather comes up with a creative idea where he repurposes the fabric from the blanket and turns it into a jacket for Joseph. This sparks a wonderful journey of creativity and love as his grandfather continues to repurpose the fabric, turning it into many items such as a vest, a handkerchief, a tie, and even a button. Each item the grandfather turns the fabric into becomes a beautiful story.

The major themes in this book were love, creativity, and resourcefulness. I think this because I could see how much Joseph's grandfather shows him love by creating all kinds of different things for Joseph. Whenever Joseph came running to his grandfather, he always found creative ways to make something special for him. This shows creativity because Joseph’s grandfather could turn something old into something new, like a jacket, vest, handkerchief, and tie. It also shows resourcefulness because these items were not being replaced but repurposed using the same fabric from the blanket Joseph received when he was young. The main genre of this book is Traditional literature. Through reading this book, children could learn about appreciating the value of love and thoughtfulness behind gifts. They can understand that it is not always about what the gift is, but about the story behind it or how much time and care someone spent creating or choosing that special item for them. This teaches the importance of recognizing the effort and intention that go into giving gifts and cherishing the special memories connected to them. They could also learn to be creative or resourceful by trying to make something new out of an item they already have 😊

My favorite part of the book was seeing all the creative things the grandfather made for Joseph. At times, I thought, "I don’t think he will be able to make something out of such a small piece of fabric," but as I read on, the grandfather proved me wrong. It was a fun little journey, which is why this book quickly became a WOW book for me. Seeing the relationship the two of them shared was really heartwarming. The author used repetition and foreshadowing in the book, which really added to the quality of the writing. Every time Joseph’s items would become worn out, he would say, “Grandpa can fix it.” The repetition of this phrase kept the readers engaged by foreshadowing that he would make something new. I think it gives the readers a moment to think about what he could possibly create. The phrase “it is time to throw it” also repeats itself multiple times, but Joseph deep down knows that his grandpa will figure it out, which speaks a lot about their relationship.

[Brenda Castaneda · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book, a Jewish folktale about family love and being clever. Joseph is the main character who receives a hand-made blanket from his grandfather when he was born. He uses that blanket and the blanket grows older with him too. Joseph gives his grandfather the blanket and asks him to fix it. His grandfather then turns it into many different things every time Joseph asks him to fix it. The piece of fabric gets smaller and smaller with every fix, but Joseph continues to wear it proudly. After the piece of fabric it turned into a button, Joseph eventually loses it and it is forever gone. He asks his grandfather to fix it, but he. "can't make something from nothing." The main messages in this book are being clever by reusing and recycling and creating memories from the love of family. In this Jewish folktale book, children can learn how to reuse and recycle material that they have and create new things. One way to use it instructionally is by grabbing a piece of fabric or paper and turning them into a variety of different things. This way the children can see how the piece of paper can be a place to write, but it could also be a piece to use as origami. The children can learn to value things that loved ones have given them, but also learn that they can create beautiful memories with that love. This is a WOW book for me because it creates a sense of creativity with the different shapes a single piece of fabric could take. The images in the book tell another story on their own. They show how someones trash is another one's treasure with the small pictures of the mice under the house taking the scraps of fabric being left. The mice use the pieces of fabric to create clothing, bedding, table covers, and curtains. This is another thing children could learn from this book.
The author utilizes repetition to convey different situations for each stage of the piece of fabric. It allows the reader to know that another change is coming by foreshadowing what is going to happen next. This book is free of bias because it presents an old Yiddish folk tale about creating something from nothing. It is free of stereotypes and avoids loaded words. It is about a Jewish family and Jews do not have many books written about them.

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reusing and recycling old things can make new things have meaning. There is a story behind everything!

In this book, you will learn about how a little boy named Joseph is gifted a blanket from his Grandfather. As Joseph grows up his blanket gets older and older. His mother tells him to get rid of it. but his Grandfather keeps making new things from the blanket materials over and over. The major themes in the book were family and creativity. The theme of family was shown through Joseph always going to his Grandfather for help and his grandfather being there for him instantly. The creativity is shown through Joseph's grandfather's always being able to make something out of the original blanket materials. The genre of this book is traditional literature. Through reading this book children can learn to be creative and to rely on family. This is a WOW book for me because of the creativity that came with the making of new items for Joseph and through the repetitive writing style of the author, always being able to keep the new guessing on what would be made next from the old material.

A few writing craft techniques the author used that enhanced the quality of the writing in this book were the use of repetition and symbolism with the blanket, which showed the passage of time. I would consider this book to be an anti-bias book because there is no sides to be taken in the story. It is just a story through the life of young boy and the transformation of his blanket.

[Sam (Hissing Potatoes) · Rating 5 out of 5]

My memories of reading this story as a kid are of how enraptured I was with the illustrations, particularly of the shiny blue blanket material. That bedazzlement has not faded.

This book has SO MUCH going on. The main story, yes, but also the exquisite illustrations of the shtetl that show the stories of its inhabitants; the understated character actions like Joseph's sister trying to comfort him with her own doll; the parallel story of the mouse family living under the house; the message about not letting materials go to waste (both in the main house and in the mouse house). There are relatively few words, but the incredible illustrations inspire several minutes of perusal before turning the page.

Also there's an adorable panel of little mice children attending Hebrew school, and if that at least doesn't get you to pick up this book, I don't know what else to say.

[Fatima Kanso · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Something from Nothing” is a story about a young boy named Joesph and his grandfather who bond when they try and make something from quilt. The boy is amazed throughout the story of how the quilt which he thought was useless, can be transformed into unimaginable things.
One of the major themes in the book is the importance of reusing and recycling. Another major theme is the importance of sharing memories with our family. The main genre of this book is Traditional literature, because it is a retelling of a classic Jewish Folktale called “Joseph’s Coat” which had been passed down from generation to generation.
The book also emphasizes the importance of making the most of what you have, which is common traditional literature. It is, however, written for a young audience typically ages of 4-8 years old. If I were to read it to children, I could teach them the importance of preserving family traditions. I would also teach them to acknowledge their creativity and what their ability to imagine can do.
This book was a WOW book for me because not only is it for children to read, but for readers of all ages to explore a tradition that many families follow. The themes of love and resourcefulness emphasized in the book teach an important lesson in valuing what we have.
Some writing techniques that the author used in this book were imagery of describing details that create sensory images in the reader’s mind. Another technique is humor that was incorporated to keep the readers engaged, since this story can have a heavy topic for young readers. The author portrayed anti-bias content because the book promotes diversity and respect for individuals of all ages, and since it sends a message that people of different backgrounds should be respected and valued equally.

[Sadaf Rahimi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you ever loved something so much that you cannot imagine throwing it away? In this traditional literature story by Phoebe Gilman, we are introduced to our main character. The main character loves his blanket, but as the story progresses and he gets older he cannot bear to throw it away. The themes of this book are appreciation and creativity. This can be seen when the grandfather knits different things as the boy grows older. The boy loves his jacket so much that he is not willing to use another one. The beauty of this book is in its writing style. The author uses repetition and symbolism as the story progresses. The repetition of the words “throw it away” and “Grandpa can fix it” tells the reader about the close relationship the grandson has with his grandpa. The repetition of words creates a rhythmic pattern that makes the plot predictable to young children. This predictability is what lures children into wanting to read the book. The jacket also symbolizes coming of age, family, and love. This can be seen repeatedly as the jacket morphs into different things- jacket, tie, blanket, etc. This renewing of material also teaches children subconsciously not to be wasteful and to use their resources wisely. The author's imagery and detailed illustrations make the story visually appealing. The characters' emotions can be seen; this helps readers connect emotionally and visually with the story.

This story is not biased because of its non-judgemental characters and inclusive representation. The author does not diminish a certain group of people or attack a certain ideology. Instead of harmfully stereotyping the Jewish people the author celebrates the people. This is a WOW book for me because it teaches children about valuing the people in their lives. The story uses simple language and teaches us how to adapt to different situations. Instead of getting mad that he was growing older, the main character chose to go with the flow as his grandfather changed his approach to making him different things. Telling us that instead of dwelling we should find solutions as times change.

[Margaret Klein · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a re-issue of a much beloved children's book (and song). The colorful illustrations and the sing-song repetition makes this an easy one for little ones to grasp as they wind up repeating the chorus. When it arrived in my office as a new PJ Library book one of our staff, an accomplished singer songwriter herself remembered the song version. We three adults gathered in my office had fun reading the book together as it teaches an important lesson about not wasting and using every last "scrap" down to the button. She knew every "verse" and we giggled along with the book. Here's a link to the song version. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5iin...

[Joelle Wildman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been searching for this book for years. It was included in my 2nd grade textbook, but could only remember the illustrations- I found it today. The story is cute, a classic folktale, but the story told through the illustrations is obviously so memorable that 25 years later they still had an impression on me.

[Eva-Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was going to give it four stars, but bumped it up to five because of the subplot with the mice. This book is so good, and so beautifully illustrated.