Mitten Thief

Sisters Molly and Jules love winter and playing in the snow but sometimes lose track of their mittens. As the girls set out on a snowy outdoor adventure with their friends, they discover what has been happening to those lost mittens. Once the mystery is solved, and all the missing mittens are found, Molly, Jules and their friends hatch a plan to return them to their rightful owners.

"The Mitten Thief" is reminiscent of author Jill Kaufenberg's early winter adventures in her birthplace of Yakima, Washington, as well as her childhood home in Austin, Minnesota. The dirty snow pile in her elementary school parking lot was itself a magical universe, and it captured Jill's imagination for hours on end, year after year. Now residing in Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota, with her husband, son and two daughters, Jill has discovered that kids don't need vacations to faraway places to have extraordinary experiences.

As an entrepreneur and mom of hockey players, skiers, hikers and sledders-who are forever in need of warm mittens-Jill felt compelled to create a brand that met their standards. She set out to design the world's best children's mitten with a one-of-a-kind replacement program, and thus her company, Chopper Mill, was born. In the process, she was also inspired to write "The Mitten Thief" to share her family's passion for the cold outdoors and the pain of constantly misplaced mittens!