Origin
This story is adapted from an old Jewish folk song about a tailor who makes his old coat into a jacket, vest, tie, and finally a button. When the button is lost, he makes up a song about it all.
I thought, “That’s exactly what I do! Anything that happens can be turned into a story.” So I decided to make the song into a picture book. But a picture book is for children and there wasn’t any child in the song.
“I can fix that.” I said. “I’ll just make the tailor into a Grandpa. Then he can make all these things for his grandson, Joseph. But, would the first thing he made be a coat? No. It would be a blanket.”
Fun Facts
If you read the words without the pictures, they could take place anywhere, anytime. It was only when I started doing the drawings, that I decided to set it back in the olden days, in a Jewish village like the one the song came from. The book then took on a whole new dimension for me. It became a way of remembering the world of my Grandparents.
The people in the streets and marketplace are actual portraits of people who lived in the shtetl.
My Great Grandfather was a poor, Jewish tailor.
While I was drawing, I kept being bothered by the fact that the button was lost. The kid in me didn’t care if it was all turned into a story. That kid wanted to know where the button was. This led me to add the picture story of the mice who live beneath the floorboards, so that they could find the button.
Joseph’s little sister looks like my daughter, Leora did when she was a baby. Grandpa made her a wonderful blanket too. When Joseph loses his button she offers him her dolly but not her special blanket.
There are chickens in every book of mine except this one. (Though you can still find some kind of poultry…)
Something From Nothing was made into an animated special by Portfolio Entertainment.
Hide and Seek
Oliver, the parrot from Grandma & the Pirates
A picture of the golden apple
A picture of one of Jillian’s wonderful pigs
A picture from The Balloon Tree
Little Blue Ben
One of Jillian’s games being played
Activities
Activity #1: From a large piece of blue paper, cut out the things that Joseph’s Grandpa makes for him. Shuffle them and ask the children to place them in the correct order.
Activity #2: Tell the story while cutting the shapes out of a large rectangle of blue paper. Children take the paper scraps and cut their own creations out of the bits that are leftover.
Activity #3: This book can be incorporated into units on:
- Life in the old Jewish shtetls
- Recycling
- Folktales
Activity #4: Compare various versions of traditional folktales.
Activity #5: Have students ask their parents or Grandparents to tell stories from their childhood.
Activity #6: Tell or write the mouse story.
Activity #7: A lesson on the concept of zero/nothing.
Activity #8: A lesson on the Sabbath
Activity #9: Students bring in a treasured object and tell the story of what makes it special. Where did it come from? How is it used? Etc. These stories can be real or imaginary.
Activity #10: Invite Cascade Theatre in to show their award-winning play based on Something From Nothing.