Several months ago, I bought a fairly large collection of books from the estate of a retired school principal and this book was in that pile. It is actually the second book I have read and written about in that purchase. The other was "The Play Pretty Book", an Appalachian children's book which was produced by a Kentucky based educational non-profit and illustrated by Appalachian artist Tom Whitaker. I read many different genres of literature and high quality children's literature is one of them. This book, "The Keeping Quilt" was a winner of the Sydney Taylor Book Award from the Association of Jewish Libraries. It was also a Carnegie Medal Honor Book. This book is about a Russian Jewish family which immigrated to the United States with a little girl named Anna who is the great-grandmother of the narrator. Anna has a much beloved babushka and dress which, naturally, become too small for her in time. Her mother decided to invite the neighbor women in to hold a quilting bee and make a quilt from the babushka and dress so that Anna can keep something made from her treasured items. The quilt gets passed down from one little girl to another through several generations of the family throughout the life of the book.
Since my real academic specialty is Appalachian Studies, let me say that this is a wonderful book to be used with Appalachian children since quilts and quilting hold such a special place in Appalachian Culture. I grew up sleeping under what is called a "tacked quilt" which, instead of being sewn in regular stitches, has yarn "tacks" all over the body of the quilt. The creator of such a quilt uses a darning needle and a skein of yarn and at uniform distances of about 4 inches in each direction passes the needle through the quilt twice at about the distance of a regular stitch, cuts off the yarn at about 3 inches and ties the two ends in a knot to make a "tack". As I fell asleep at night, I would doze off holding and playing with the "tacks" on my quilt. I have known many other Appalachian children who grew up the same way with "tacked quilts". Thousands of Appalachian children grew up sleeping under regular patchwork quilts also. The story of a quilt in this book will make a connection in the hearts and minds of most Appalachian children. It is a great book for use in teaching Multi-cultural Education and Tolerance to young Appalachian children.
Yes, this book is a bit aged having been published in 1988. But it is also a timeless book about family, cultural traditions, expressions of love by elders doing things for young children, and quietly makes the point that the family are Jewish. The book is published in 8 1/2" x 11" format, both written and illustrated by the author who actually wrote more than 50 children's books, and is a wonderful illustrator. Her illustration style is unique in that most of the page areas are in black and white with only key areas or items in color. I have included a page or two from the book here to demonstrate the illustration style which serves to strongly emphasize the importance of the key item in each page of the book. If you are a parent or teacher of kindergarten or first grade children, this is an excellent book to begin the discussion of religious tolerance with.
No comments:
Post a Comment