Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that though this is a picture book, it's really aimed at middle grade kids. There are historical references here that will need explaining, especially for younger kids, as will the information in the collages. There are some references to violence: a slave killed, a silhouette of the capture of a runaway, news images from protest marches.
Families who read this book could discuss the history. What was slavery and how did it end? What happened to the freed slaves? What was the Civil Rights era? How is life for African-Americans different now than it was even in Mom and Dad's childhood?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Matt Berman
This story about nine generations of African-American women won the Newbery Honor, but with its spectacular art by Hudson Talbott it would seem a more likely choice for the Caldecott, which celebrates art.
These rich and complex, two-page, borderless pictures reward repeated viewings and close inspection -- there's a lot of variety and a lot to see. Some are beautiful, deep, watercolor paintings, some are collages of historical scenes and documents, and some are visual metaphors, such as one showing a map of the US with the states crudely sewn together and a large, frayed rip along the Mason-Dixon line. Nearly all of them contain quilts or quilting motifs.
The text is beautifully written, with recurring motifs about mother love and roads of stars, quilts, and stories. But there are many references that younger children may not understand. Twice characters are said to have "jumped broom," with no explanation. The author refers to "the north side of the war," but what war, and what that means, is not explained. Kids may have many questions while reading this beautiful book, and it's probably best shared with an adult who can explain what the author does not.
From The Book
And at night, she sewed stars and moons and roads -- tiny patch pieces of stars and moons and roads. Slaves whispered what no one was allowed to say: That Mathis know how to make ... a Show Way.
Plot Summary:
The author touches on the lives of each of her female ancestors on her mother's side of the family, covering nine generations up to her daughter. She begins with a little unnamed girl sold away from her family at a young age, who learns to sew quilts that show the road to freedom, called Show Ways. Her daughter, Mathis May, is also sold away, and also learns to sew the Show Ways.
When freedom comes, the daughters in the family continue to learn how to sew beautiful quilts, which they sell to earn a living. Eventually some of them learn to read, become teachers, participate in the Civil Rights Movement, and on down to the author, who becomes a writer who still sews quilts, and has a daughter, to whom she tells the stories of her family.
Related Books:
Other Books by Jacqueline Woodson
From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun
I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This
Maizon at Blue Hill
If You Come Softly
Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson
Quilts and Freedom
Follow the Drinking Gourd by Jeanette Winter
Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt by Deborah Hopkinson
The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco
The Patchwork Path : A Quilt Map to Freedom by Bettye Stroud
The Secret to Freedom by Marcia Vaughan
Related Website
Class Site on Freedom Quilts
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ViolenceA slave is killed while running away. A silhouette shows a man aiming a gun at a runaway slave, who is also being chased by dogs. Several images in a collage show slaves being whipped, one with his pants pulled down. Some violent images from 60s-era civil rights conflicts. |
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