The Whispering Cloth: A Refugee's Story [Hardcover]

Pegi Deitz Shea (Author), Anita Riggio (Illustrator)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Demco Media (October 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0606103627
• ISBN-13: 978-0606103626
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 9.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,705,672 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Hi! Thanks for your interest in my work. I LOVE to meet readers at school visits and teacher conferences, and share my writing processes. Please visit www.pegideitzshea.com for details.

Right now, I'm celebrating the release of my "lucky" 13th book, NOAH WEBSTER: WEAVER OF WORDS. I'm also in press (editing) my first YA novel, ABE IN ARMS, about a former boy soldier from Liberia having a hard time adjusting to high school in the US. I've co-written a nonfiction picture book with Iris VanRynbach called THE TAXING CASE OF THE COWS: A TRUE STORY ABOUT SUFFRAGE. We're thrilled that Caldecott winner, Emily Arnold McCully, is illustrating it! It should be out Fall 2010 or Spring 2011.

I'm working on writing 2 projects: SNAKE BOY, SISTER SPY, a YA novel based on the teen exploits of my aunt and uncle in the French Resistance during WWII; also, I'm working with UCONN marine biologists on a series called AQUANAUTS: TEEN HEROES OF THE SEAS.

I teach at UCONN and the Institute of Children's Literature. I love sharing my knowledge, energy, and passion for writing.

Learn more about me at my website, or email me at [e-mail]

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I didn't know this book was a story about Hmong people., February 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Whispering Cloth: A Refugee's Story (Paperback)

Hmong is a group of people that live in the high mountains in South China or they could live in Laos but in the mountains. They speak four different kinds of languages: Lao, Chinese, Thai, and Vietnamese. Whenever I read a book about a language like Lao I get very interested and I want to ask my parents about it because they are from a refugee camp, too. I ask my parents lots of questions until it blows their minds because I ask too much questions!! For example I ask "Did you swim to Thailand?" "How did you get to New York?" and lots more. I ask lots of questions until they answer me. My parents survived from the refugee and the soldiers. They swam to Thailand, if the army or soldiers saw one of my parents they would ask questions or instead they would shoot one of them. What I heard was the army took the Lao people and took them to the refugee camp! This book is a believable story and you use your imagination about the cloth talking and speaking. I would recommend this book to any child or grown up who is interested in a refugee's story.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Moving!, December 30, 2001

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Whispering Cloth: A Refugee's Story (Paperback)

I wish I would have spent more time with the Hmong in Thailand. I found this story very moving and the immigrants strength and resilience in surviving wonderful to see. I am excited to share this with my students several of whom are refugees from war and conflict.

2.0 out of 5 stars Almost No Art, and Nothing New, December 24, 2009

By 

Mateo (Mexico City) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Whispering Cloth: A Refugee's Story (Paperback)

This book suffers for its illustrations, some of which are downright unattractive; there is very little actual needlework featured in the book. And, no new territory is covered by the text. This publication unintentionally makes the point that the time has come for people to stop marketing the Hmong refugee experience.