If you can get hold of this book, I highly recommend it. My copy is published in 1972, but it seems like it’s much older. It’s sweetly written and endearingly illustrated. I do like everything I’ve read by this author.
A succinct summary: Pelle wants a new suit, so he shears his lamb. He trades chores with various people until he gets all he needs to have his suit made. Then he works for the tailor who makes him his new suit. .
The jobs Pelle does and the jobs he asks others do are all but lost arts; carding wool, spinning, weaving cloth, even making a suit! We have lost something in our drive-through, cheaply-made, satisfied-with-good-enough culture.
How do we get it back? Do you feel that a modicum of self reliance is important? We’ve lost the sense of independence that even a young boy can feel capable, can know that he has what it takes to get the job done.
A lot of people are upset these days, in light of the government’s current antics. No one is taking care of them. Babies are going hungry. People aren’t working. People aren’t getting paid.
l wonder if Pelle and his family would ever have expected their government to take care of them.