Weaving the Rainbow [Hardcover]

George Ella Lyon (Author), Stephanie Anderson (Illustrator)

Book Description

How do you make a rainbow?

If you are a weaver you can make a rainbow with wool.

If you are a sheep you can BE a rainbow.

Here's how.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 3--In this satisfying picture book, a young woman raises sheep, shears them, cards and spins the wool, dyes the yarn, and weaves it at a loom. She is an artist who takes pleasure from and applies patience to each phase of her work. Lyon's writing is lyrical, and the gentle pacing is calming. Terms like "yearling," "skein," "warp," "weft," "shuttle," and "treadles" are understandable in context and bring richness to the text. Words and illustrations complement each other in evoking the essence of creating art and in portraying the lush countryside. In her skillfully composed watercolor artwork, Anderson directs readers' eyes and shows them what to focus on. The paintings, with their dose of impressionism, effectively depict textures, but they can also suggest steam or wind. The final spread reveals what the woman is weaving: a picture of her sheep in their pasture, to which an illustration on the dedication page alluded earlier. A beautifully presented walk through one person's artistic process.--Liza Graybill, Worcester Public Library, MA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

K-Gr. 2. Though its title seems fanciful, this meditative picture book tells a realistic story of a textile artist who spins wool from her own flock of sheep, boils the yarn with dyes extracted by hand, then weaves it, "doing with wool what painters do with paint." Even city slickers will be fascinated by Lyon's lyrical yet concrete descriptions of the multistep process: how at shearing time the wool "comes off in one piece, sheep-shape"; how dying wool is "like dying Easter eggs." Anderson's soft-focus watercolors capture the beauty and serenity of the artist's pastoral surroundings, and, impressively, the nubbly textures of the finished tapestry. Though this title does not fill any obvious niche, the plentiful, winsome, snowy sheep and satisfying start-to-finish story arc have intrinsic appeal. Elementary-school art teachers may find it especially useful for introducing kids to less-common forms of creative expression and for communicating a gentle message about the rewards of patient labor. Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books (March 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689851693
• ISBN-13: 978-0689851698
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #340,231 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beauty to behold, June 13, 2006

By 

Eric D. Albright "www.ethicalthought.com" (New England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Weaving the Rainbow (Hardcover)

I loved it. It is a story about a child who has sheep, sheers them, dies the wool spins and weaves it. The story is very simple. You know what is happening but it is a wonderfully comforting and serene story. Most compelling is the beauty of the illustrations. I fell into the pictures and relished absorbing each part of the imagery. Go ahead and click on the see inside button to see some of the illustrations but I would recommend that you go to your local library and take a look at this excellent work.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Weaving the Rainbow in the Classroom, July 1, 2007

By 

Brandi Cooper - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Weaving the Rainbow (Hardcover)

I must say that this is the most charming children's book that I have read in a long time. George Ella Lyon brings so much imagery into her words, along with the amazing illustrations. As you journey through the farm with the weaver you are transported to the old days, when we had to live off of what nature provided us. The imagery I mentioned is great for small children. The stories of the weaver seeing the "rainbow sheep" in the field caught my attention and I am an adult!
The watercolor illustrations by Stephanie Anderson are absolutely beautiful. Any page from this book could be taken out and framed as artwork. She brings so many beautiful colors into her work, and captures the pastoral landscape beautifully. The detail that she uses in the sheep, before and after shearing, is amazing. They look so lifelike!
Being from a farming background, I found the information that she uses extremely accurate and detailed. The use of organic dyes and the methods used by the weaver are adapted to today's living, to show children that these tasks can still be performed today, and are still performed today. The mention of Kentucky fields and the native plants also bring another level to the story. Children love it when they are connected to the stories in some way; it really helps develop an interest in reading.
I would also recommend this book to teachers for their classrooms. This is a fantastic book to use in a science class with small students, or even into the middle grades. I think students would enjoy learning about something new, and you could incorporate many of the events in the story to your classes. Things like field trips to sheep farms, lessons on wool and fibers, making dyes out of plant materials, just to name a few. Each of these lessons could be adapted to a classroom in multiple age groups.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a child's story told in prose and art worthy of adults, February 16, 2007

By 

book lover (New Haven, CT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Weaving the Rainbow (Hardcover)

The warm and deceptively simple text of this book is attractive, and it leaves space for the expansive and simply astonishing watercolor illustrations which give the book its spellbinding power. Not every child will take to it, and our child "grew" into it near 5, but the pictures simply glow as they follow the young sheep through the seasons, shearings and ultimately follow the weaver and the wool to the loom and her work. This is a wonderful gift and a pleasure for grownups and children alike.