Written: Jacqueline Woodson
First line: When Soonie’s great-grandma was seven, she was
sold from the Virginia land to a plantation in South Carolina without her ma or
pa but with some muslin her ma had given her.
Why you should read this book: This reconstructed narrative
takes the knowledge the author has of her own ancestral history and combines it
with a poetic voice and a story about freedom, equality, risk, and quilt
making. From the unnamed ancestor who learned how to sew “Show Way,” beautiful
quilts that secretly hid in them maps that slaves could use to escape to the
north and freedom, the story spills down through the ages, marking the birth of
girl child after girl child, learning how to sew, dreaming of a better day.
Eventually freedom comes, along with the knowledge of reading and writing, but,
in the author’s family, the habit of sewing stars from fabric to create
knowledge and history and meaning, is ingrained.
Why you shouldn’t read this book: You don’t have anything to
pass on to your kids.
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