Stitchin' and Pullin': A Gee's Bend Quilt (Picture Book)

McKissack, Patricia

ISBN 10: 0375931635 ISBN 13: 9780375931635

Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers, 2008

Synopsis

MOTHER AND DAUGHTER, grandmother and granddaughter, aunt and niece, friend and friend. For a hundred years, generations of women from Gee’s Bend have quilted together, sharing stories, trading recipes, singing hymns—all the while stitchin’ and pullin’ thread through cloth. Every day Baby Girl listens, watches, and waits, until she’s called to sit at the quilting frame. Piece by piece, she puzzles her quilt together—telling not just her story, but the story of her family, the story of Gee’s Bend, and the story of her ancestors’ struggle for freedom.

About this title

About the Author:

Patricia C. McKissack is the author of the Caldecott Honor Book Mirandy and Brother Wind and the Newbery Honor Book The Dark-Thirty. She and her husband, Fred, have written over 100 books about the African American experience. She has also received the Regina Medal for lifetime achievement in children’s books and the Virginia Hamilton Award. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

Cozbi Cabrera is the illustrator of the picture books Beauty, Her Basket, and Thanks a Million. You can visit her Web site at www.cozbi.com. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 1–5—The rural Alabama community of Gee's Bend is widely recognized for its unique quilts. Although the women have been quilting for over a century, their work was unknown until art historian William Arnett discovered it about 20 years ago. Stitchin' and Pullin' is the modern-day story of Baby Girl, who grows from a child playing beneath her elders' quilting frame to becoming a member of the intergenerational circle, piecing together her first quilt. McKissack's free-verse narrative shares the rich heritage of the Gee's Bend artisans as Baby Girl selects the fabrics that have significance to her and her family and finds the "heart" of her quilt. She speaks about the meaning of colors and patterns and what they bring to a quilt. The story is full of love and spirit. Cabrera's acrylic paintings depict the richness of tradition and strength of character as connections are made between fabric and history. Readers will enjoy the slow cadence of verse as they pause to consider history through the eyes of the people who lived it and the legacy that is passed on to the next generation.—Lisa Glasscock, Columbine Public Library, Littleton, CO
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About this edition

• Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0375931635
• ISBN 13: 9780375931635
• Binding: Library Binding
• Number of pages: 48
• Illustrator: Cabrera Cozbi A.