Customer Reviews

The Keeping Quilt

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Patricia Polacco does a wonderful job using a quilt as a symbol for a family's values of warmth, faith, and secuirity throughout several generations. It is a book to be given and passed on for weddings, brisses, christenings, or any other types of familal and friendly blessings and unions.

Patricia Polacco is one of the greatest storytellers of our generation. She has put down snippets of not only her life, but of her ancestors, into delightful stories that transcends all age groups. THE KEEPING QUILT is about Polacco's Great-Grandmother Anna, who immigrated to New York City. The only two things that she still owned from her native Russia were her dress and a babushka. Anna's mother eventually takes parts of her dress and babushka along with old clothes belonging to other relatives and makes a quilt that will remind everyone of their homeland. This quilt serves as a source of comfort and memories for future generations. This is another book that I bought my daughter for her birthday. She will read this book to her second graders perhaps inspiring a new generation to write down the memories of the past.

Patricia Polacco's classic tale "The Keeping Quilt" manages to blend, in not all that many pages, family, love, tradition, the cycle of life, and the ebb and flow of events in one family which are anchored by just one thing: the family quilt.

Made by the immigrant great-grandmother and her quilting bee friends, the quilt is composed of scraps of fabric from little girls' dresses, the aprons of aunts, and so on. All come together to form a beautiful quilt which features dancing animals, swaying trees, and all manner of beautiful ornamentation.

The quilt serves variously as a quilt, a tent, a huppah at a wedding, a tablecloth, and so on. Polacco uses the same illustrative technique she employs in her wonderful "Betty Doll"--the quilt itself appears in multicolored beauty, while the rest of each picture is done in subtle and evocative pencil. Because of this simple visual choice, the quilt and its many permutations leap to the fore and become, essentially, the main character in a story filled with realistic and full-bodied people.

I have always liked the fact that Polacco doesn't draw pretty-pretty people. The little kids always look like regular little kids, with all the inherent awkwardness and realistic expressions (whether they be joyful or pouting or wondering), while the adults sometimes have worried or thoughtful expressions, bad posture, or wrinkles. Real life is going on here, and Polacco manages to capture it vividly.

I checked this book out for my 3 year old son. He has a pretty good attention span, but this book didn't hold his interest. I think it would be better for slightly older children. On the other hand, I loved this book. I actually read it to myself when he wasn't paying attention and cried! The story of the babushka quilt being passed down through the generations will touch your heart and perhaps bring a tear to your eye too.

I like the Keeping Quilt because the quilt was made by Patricia Polacco's family. The best part of the book I liked was when they started making the quilt. I like that part because you could see what color it was.

When Great Gramma Anna left Russia to come to New York City, she had only the clothes on her back. Soon she had outgrown her dress and babushka and her mother used these and other family member's old clothes to make a colorful quilt. "It will be like having the family in backhome Russia dance around us at night." As author Patricia Polacco explains, this quilt tells the story of her family from generation to generation, and has been present at all their life events, births, deaths, weddings and other special family celebrations. It is the glue that binds her family together. Her gentle, poignant, simple text is only outdone by the beautiful brown and white illustrations, reminiscent of old photographs with only the quilt highlighted in vibrant color as it wraps babies, covers tables, is used as a wedding huppa... The Keeping Quilt is a very special history book about love and faith and our connections to each other, told with insight and wisdom.

Who else but Patricia Polacco can create a story about a few pieces of fabric that will have you singing, dancing, crying? If I tell you that I become overwhelmed at the very thought of this little scrap of a book, will you think I am overreacting? Actually teary-eyed.

The rich patchwork of a family history, on top of, covered by and wrapped within a quilt made of Great Great Grandma Anna's blue dress and red babushka, Uncle Vladmir's shirt, Aunt Havalah's nightdress, and Aunt Natasha's apron. Through all of the events that mark a lifetime, birth, marriage, family meals, coming of age, deaths, we see the quilt binding generation to generation.

In simple black and white (and shades of gray!) illustrations which we have the feeling were actually photograhs, the quilt stands out again and again as the thing that gives each scene color. It is a symbol of all the things that a family hands down to each member.

Wonderfully uplifting, evoking strong emotions, and a pure joy to share.

I loved this story and illustrations. This is a wonderful story about the traditions of passing things down from generation to generation. The family in the story made a quilt from some of the clothes they brought over from Russia. The quilt was then used for weddings, births, and deaths. The story of the objects on the quilt were passed along with the generations. I thought this would be an excellent book to read for a unit on family traditions. The students could talk about objects that might be passed down in their families.

As the quilt gets passed to each generation, the newest members of the family learn about their forebearers and gain a sense of belonging and continuity.

I read this book some time ago in a public library and later purchased it for a friend of mine who recently got getting married. I wanted it to be special gift for her. Like myself, she loves the book's warmth. My friend later wrote to me thanking me for the book. She loved it and is now sharing it with others, and mentions that she too will keep the book in mind as a future special wedding gift. I love how Ms. Polacco places special values on familial traditions and history by using the quilt as its center piece. Of the many other books I have read by Ms. Polacco, this is one my of favorites. I would also like to thank public television's "Reading Rainbow" for introducing me to this wonder author.

C.J., Teacher