Customer Reviews

The Patchwork Path: A Quilt Map to Freedom

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This tale of a child who makes a quilt as a map for her escape along the Underground Railroad is an inspiring story with handsome, earth-toned illustrations. The characters' stylized faces reflect the book's storybook "climate." I am not going to present this story to students as a slice of realistic history about the harsh period of slavery (that stain on our country's history). Instead, I'll present this lovely story as an idealized portrait about the human spirit prevailing against darkness/suffering. The main character is a child - born a slave, torn from family - who creates a quilt to guide her to freedom. Her quilt is really a symbol of order and beauty. This is a story about human ingenuity using the resources at hand to prevail against weighty odds, to triumph.

This memorable book is based on a story of quilts and The Underground Railroad passed down orally from grandmother to mother to daughter. Instead of nonfiction, this book is a well-written fictional story about a young slave girl, Hannah, living on a Southern plantation. Bettye Stroud's sensitive prose, illustrated by Erin Susanne Bennett's bold, angular drawings, is an excellent way to introduce young children to a tragic time in US history; a time when children, as well as adults, were owned by others. Stroud uses her well-honed writing skills to bring this time back, and to show a little girl coping with the challenges and succeeding.

Straightforward story with believable characters shows how slaves planned carefully to run to freedom in Canada, getting colder every step of the way. While the "code" may be somewhat fiction, it does show how staying on the northbound path, evading slave catchers and their dogs, and finally reaching the shores of freedom were real clues then memories kept in handcrafts like quilts. This is beautifully illustrated.

This is a great book to use for a quilting workshop! SCAD Buzz Bus volunteers used this book as inspiration to celebrate Black History Month at a local school. We held a hands-on quilting workshop. The book provides samples for quilt blocks with symbols.

A good addition to a collection on the Underground Railroad, and the history of the importance of quilting in the 19th century.

Fantastic book and it was in perfect condition. This book shows how quilts were used as signs.

I am a soon to be teacher and was making a thematic unit for the Underground Railroad. This book is so great. OH and I"m a quilter. I love the pictures and the story!

As pretty as the pictures are, the story that children 4-8 are being told in this book has as much truth as Washington chopping down a cherry tree or Betsy Ross making the nation's first flag. Unfortunately the author presents the story as fact and not the fiction that it is. Virtually all quilt and textile historians and historians of the Underground Railroad (both white and black people) have found absolutely no evidence to corruborate the 1990's fabrication of a quilt code being used to guide slaves to freedom. It is a shame that folks anxious to make a few dollars off of this attractive but false story are teaching it to our children to the exclusion of true tales of heroic 19th century African Americans.

I purchased this book along with others to help young people learn about not only a history of quilting, but also a history pf the human spirit. It's a wonderful book filled with great illustrations. It is being used in conjuction with a program presented by the Education Committee of our local quilt guild.

The illustrations in this book are beautiful! While it is written for children, it is perfect for my use in talking about the Underground Railroad to people who just want an overview and don't have time (or the inclination)to read a large book.