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Book Summary

Reviewed by Matt Berman

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.

Is It Any Good?

4

This story about nine generations of African-American women won the Newbery Honor, but with its spectacular art by Hudson Talbott it seems a more likely choice for the Caldecott, which celebrates art. These rich and complex, two-page, borderless pictures reward repeated viewings and close inspection. Some are beautiful watercolor paintings, some are historical collages, and some are visual metaphors, such as one showing a map of the U.S. with the states crudely sewn together and a large, frayed rip along the Mason-Dixon

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. This book is probably best shared with an adult.

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