The Story of Silk: From Worm Spit to Woven Scarves

In this addition to the Traveling Photographer series, Sobol provides an intimate view of silk production in a small village in Thailand. Sobol’s prose has a light and inquisitive tone, as he learns about the process of creating silk, which begins with silkworm eggs from a Bangkok farm and entails boiling the silkworm cocoons, capturing the unwinding silk fibers from the cocoons, and finally weaving the threads together. The people Sobol meets bring heart to the story: men enjoy a meal of boiled silkworms (the author politely declines), and four small girls giddily model silk dresses made in their village. Readers will be surprised and entranced by the origins of this ubiquitous fabric. Ages 6–10. (Sept.)