From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 2?Old Dame Counterpane is a maternal figure, like Mother Goose; a creator, like God; and a seamstress, like many old storytellers who sew and tell. The cumulative rhyme is reminiscent of "Little Nancy Etticoat" and "The House That Jack Built." At the same time, it's also a counting book; Dame Counterpane takes 10 days to create the world and "you and me." Like the sun gods of the Romans and Greeks, at the end of each day, she nips her thread and starts again the next morning. Seeming simplicity belies the depth and richness of this tale. The pacing is exquisite, both on the part of the author, who repeats and punctuates the verse with the timing of a comedian, and on the part of the illustrator, who provides meaning with each page turn. The charming watercolor illustrations are clever and full of interesting detail.?Ruth K. MacDonald, Bay Path College, Longmeadow, MA
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Ages 4-8. With deceptive simplicity, Old Dame Counterpane stitches the world together square by square. Beginning with square number one, she sews until 10 squares of a quilt are completed and the earth and its creatures have been stitched into being. Yolen uses a rhyming narrative text with a catchy refrain to describe the grandmotherly old woman as she selects colorful threads for the animals of the land, birds of the sky, and fish of the sea. The watercolor illustrations, which draw heavily from a blue and violet palette, border on cute but have plenty of child appeal, and Yolen's verse, with the jolly rhythms of a nursery rhyme, lends itself quite nicely to reading aloud: "Old Dame Counterpane / In square number ten / First sews women / And next sews men, / Sews in you and me-- / And then / The night being over, / She starts again."
Janice Del Negro
