About This Book:
A moving and inspiring text takes us on a journey through the work that, generation after generation, has been done by each and every woman in this family.
Mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunts, daughters, nieces, cousins and granddaughters. Generation after generation, all of them have maintained a beautiful tradition: to leave their essence embroidered on a beautiful quilt, giving rise to a valuable and unique fabric, forged from love and memories.
Women so different and yet so united that together they have created a wonderful family. But can it stay that way? Who will now be in charge of maintaining this special tradition?
A story about respect for traditions that celebrates the family as the fundamental cornerstone of our lives.
But can this charming tradition be kept alive?
Let yourself be surprised by this wonderful story, skillfully woven by Desirée Acevedo and Víctor Jaubert.
*Review Contributed By Karen Yingling, Staff Reviewer*
New meaning to “sandwich generation”!
The narrator’s great-great-grandmother has an idea; she will make a quilt with blocks from the women in the family. These blocks will represent each woman’s interest; from shelling peas to flowers to favorite dogs, generations of women lovingly work their favorite things into blocks for the quilt. This work spans generations, and includes blocks from the narrator’s mother and aunt, as well as twin cousins. When the quilt ends up with the narrator, he states that even though it was meant for the women in the family, he also wanted to contribute to this multigenerational testament to the bonds of kinship. He learns to sew, and adds a block of his baby daughter to the quilt, which he will pass down to her. The end of the book has a family tree.
Good Points
Like another title from this publisher, Fran and Zuzanna’s The Vase with the Golden Cracks, this book is printed on Stone Paper, which is so smooth and heavy that it almost feels like good quality fabric! It also makes the brilliantly saturated illustrations seem even more vibrant. There’s a good feel for the different decades that the women lived in, and the clothes and quilt blocks are very fun.
Modern readers will enjoy the twist with the son wanting to work on the quilt; there are many men involved in the quilting world now, which wasn’t necessarily the case fifty years ago.
This would make a great gift for a newborn, along with a memory quilt, and adds to the variety of picture books that feature the power of this art form in connecting generations and memories like Malik’s Saif’s Special Patches, Rockwell’s The All-Together Quilt, Polacco’s The Keeping Quilt, Johnston’s The Quilt Story, or Bourgeois’s Oma’s Quilt.
