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Summary
Summary
1944. Wartime. A six-year-old boy goes to spend the summer with his grandmother Alida in a small town near the Canadian border. With the men all gone off to fight, the women are left to run the farms. There's plenty for the boy to do--trying to help with the chores, getting to know the dog, and the horses, cows, pigs, and chickens. But when his cousin Kristina goes into labor, he can't do a thing. Instead, the house fills with women come to help and to wait, and to work on a quilt together. This is no common, everyday quilt, but one that contains all the stories of the boy's family. The quilt tells the truth, past and future: of happiness, courage, and pain; of the greatest joy, and the greatest loss. And as they wait, the women share these memorable stories with the boy. From the Hardcover edition.
Summary
1944. Wartime. A six-year-old boy goes to spend the summer with his grandmother Alida in a small town near the Canadian border. With the men all gone off to fight, the women are left to run the farms. There's plenty for the boy to do--trying to help with the chores, getting to know the dog, and the horses, cows, pigs, and chickens. But when his cousin Kristina goes into labor, he can't do a thing. Instead, the house fills with women come to help and to wait, and to work on a quilt together. This is no common, everyday quilt, but one that contains all the stories of the boy's family. The quilt tells the truth, past and future: of happiness, courage, and pain; of the greatest joy, and the greatest loss. And as they wait, the women share these memorable stories with the boy. From the Hardcover edition.
Author Notes
Gary Paulsen was born on May 17, 1939 in Minnesota. He was working as a satellite technician for an aerospace firm in California when he realized he wanted to be a writer. He left his job and spent the next year in Hollywood as a magazine proofreader. His first book, Special War, was published in 1966. He has written more than 175 books for young adults including Brian's Winter, Winterkill, Harris and Me, Woodsong, Winterdance, The Transall Saga, Soldier's Heart, This Side of Wild, and Guts: The True Stories Behind Hatchet and the Brian Books. Hatchet, Dogsong, and The Winter Room are Newbery Honor Books. He was the recipient of the 1997 Margaret A. Edwards Award for his lifetime achievement in writing for young adults.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Gary Paulsen was born on May 17, 1939 in Minnesota. He was working as a satellite technician for an aerospace firm in California when he realized he wanted to be a writer. He left his job and spent the next year in Hollywood as a magazine proofreader. His first book, Special War, was published in 1966. He has written more than 175 books for young adults including Brian's Winter, Winterkill, Harris and Me, Woodsong, Winterdance, The Transall Saga, Soldier's Heart, This Side of Wild, and Guts: The True Stories Behind Hatchet and the Brian Books. Hatchet, Dogsong, and The Winter Room are Newbery Honor Books. He was the recipient of the 1997 Margaret A. Edwards Award for his lifetime achievement in writing for young adults.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (10)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 6 Up-Referring to himself only as "the boy," Paulsen presents another semi-autobiographical reminiscence (Wendy Lamb Bks., 2004) about his beloved grandmother who raised him during the difficult years of World War II. With his mother working in a munitions factory in Chicago (and entertaining many men in their apartment), the six-year-old is sent to live with his grandmother in Minnesota. While there, they move in with Kristina, a pregnant relative, to help on her farm while her husband is in the service. When Kristina goes into labor, many local women gather at the home to assist. As they wait, they bring out the quilt of the title and tell stories about the people that each quilt square represents. This book is a celebration of the strength of all these women and his grandmother in particular. While there are several poignant moments (such as the day Kristina learns that her husband has been killed in the war), it may be difficult for students to easily connect with this slow-moving, adult-sounding story in which the anonymous nature of the protagonist keeps listeners at arm's length. Susan Ericksen provides excellent narration, capturing the deliberate nature of the story without becoming sluggish herself. Her voice for the grandmother is unique from the narration of the boy. The reading may entice those who would not otherwise be attracted to this slow-paced title.-Deanna Romriell, Salt Lake City Public Library, UT (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
A follow-up to Alida's Song, The Quilt by Gary Paulsen relates the boy's experiences at age six, spending time at his grandmother's Minnesota farm in the summer of 1944. Here, they, along with the other women whose husbands are off fighting, help a neighbor who is ready to give birth. In this moving sequel, the boy learns about life, death and the quilt that is a pictorial record of his familial ancestry. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Though this companion to The Cookcamp and Alida's Song is autobiographical, Paulsen uses a distancing narrative technique, referring to his protagonist only as ""the boy."" During World War II, the six-year-old and his grandmother stay at a farm with a pregnant cousin. The plot is sketchy, and the central motif+a quilt stitched with the names of deceased relatives+remains undeveloped. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
In 1944, with his father at war and his mother working the night shift at the munitions factory, the narrator--"the boy"--goes to live with his grandmother Alida in northern Minnesota. At a neighboring farm, seven miles and seven hours away, Alida and several local women have gathered for the birth of Kristina's baby. They share a ritual of holding a quilt and telling "quilt stories" about their lives and those who have passed. It's a quiet, beautiful tale of magic in the faces and hands of the women holding the cloth. So much of life, death, and the strength of women is told in evocative prose rich in vivid details. Begun in The Cookcamp (1991) and continued in Alida's Song (1999), this is Paulsen's ode to his grandmother and what women "had to do to keep life, and families, together during the war." A story to savor and share and Paulsen at his best. (Fiction. 8-12) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Gr. 3-6. Paulsen is probably best known for his fierce, male action-adventures about survival and war, from Hatchet 0 (1987) to Soldier's Heart 0 (1998). Consequently, the "gentle happiness" that marks this World War II novel, about a six-year-old boy living with his grandmother, Alida, in a Norwegian immigrant community in Minnesota, may be a surprise. In fact, Paulsen even works in a feminist message about strong women who stay home and take care of things while the men go off to fight and have adventures. Like The Cookcamp0 (1991) and Alida's Song 0 (1999), this draws on Paulsen's memories of the perfect grandmother who gave him a home. As Alida and other women gather to help a farmer's wife give birth, they hold a quilting bee and tell stories of their family and neighbors who have died, each one remembered in a patch of cloth. The simple, poignant prose speaks gently about the elemental domestic dramas of birth and death. --Hazel Rochman Copyright 2004 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 6 Up-Referring to himself only as "the boy," Paulsen presents another semi-autobiographical reminiscence (Wendy Lamb Bks., 2004) about his beloved grandmother who raised him during the difficult years of World War II. With his mother working in a munitions factory in Chicago (and entertaining many men in their apartment), the six-year-old is sent to live with his grandmother in Minnesota. While there, they move in with Kristina, a pregnant relative, to help on her farm while her husband is in the service. When Kristina goes into labor, many local women gather at the home to assist. As they wait, they bring out the quilt of the title and tell stories about the people that each quilt square represents. This book is a celebration of the strength of all these women and his grandmother in particular. While there are several poignant moments (such as the day Kristina learns that her husband has been killed in the war), it may be difficult for students to easily connect with this slow-moving, adult-sounding story in which the anonymous nature of the protagonist keeps listeners at arm's length. Susan Ericksen provides excellent narration, capturing the deliberate nature of the story without becoming sluggish herself. Her voice for the grandmother is unique from the narration of the boy. The reading may entice those who would not otherwise be attracted to this slow-paced title.-Deanna Romriell, Salt Lake City Public Library, UT (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
A follow-up to Alida's Song, The Quilt by Gary Paulsen relates the boy's experiences at age six, spending time at his grandmother's Minnesota farm in the summer of 1944. Here, they, along with the other women whose husbands are off fighting, help a neighbor who is ready to give birth. In this moving sequel, the boy learns about life, death and the quilt that is a pictorial record of his familial ancestry. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Though this companion to The Cookcamp and Alida's Song is autobiographical, Paulsen uses a distancing narrative technique, referring to his protagonist only as ""the boy."" During World War II, the six-year-old and his grandmother stay at a farm with a pregnant cousin. The plot is sketchy, and the central motif+a quilt stitched with the names of deceased relatives+remains undeveloped. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
In 1944, with his father at war and his mother working the night shift at the munitions factory, the narrator--"the boy"--goes to live with his grandmother Alida in northern Minnesota. At a neighboring farm, seven miles and seven hours away, Alida and several local women have gathered for the birth of Kristina's baby. They share a ritual of holding a quilt and telling "quilt stories" about their lives and those who have passed. It's a quiet, beautiful tale of magic in the faces and hands of the women holding the cloth. So much of life, death, and the strength of women is told in evocative prose rich in vivid details. Begun in The Cookcamp (1991) and continued in Alida's Song (1999), this is Paulsen's ode to his grandmother and what women "had to do to keep life, and families, together during the war." A story to savor and share and Paulsen at his best. (Fiction. 8-12) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Gr. 3-6. Paulsen is probably best known for his fierce, male action-adventures about survival and war, from Hatchet 0 (1987) to Soldier's Heart 0 (1998). Consequently, the "gentle happiness" that marks this World War II novel, about a six-year-old boy living with his grandmother, Alida, in a Norwegian immigrant community in Minnesota, may be a surprise. In fact, Paulsen even works in a feminist message about strong women who stay home and take care of things while the men go off to fight and have adventures. Like The Cookcamp0 (1991) and Alida's Song 0 (1999), this draws on Paulsen's memories of the perfect grandmother who gave him a home. As Alida and other women gather to help a farmer's wife give birth, they hold a quilting bee and tell stories of their family and neighbors who have died, each one remembered in a patch of cloth. The simple, poignant prose speaks gently about the elemental domestic dramas of birth and death. --Hazel Rochman Copyright 2004 Booklist
Excerpts
Excerpts
For America, World War II lasted for nearly five years. During those years there was a time when the boy could not live with his mother. His father had gone off to fight one week after the boy was born and his motherwent to work in a munitions factory in Chicago. At first the boy lived with her in the tiny apartment by the elevated railway. Soon, though, other people--men--came to visit her and she started to do very grown-up things. He did not fit in, and when life with his mother became too difficult, he went to live with his grandmother. The first time this happened his grandmother was working as a cook for a group of men building a war road from northern Minnesota up into Canada. They spent a wonderful summer together; later he would remember only good things about those months and indeed all the times he was with his grandmother. He called her Grandma. Her name was Alida but he called her Grandma and he loved her very much, as he would love her the rest of her life and his life, and she adored him as well and cooked him apple pies and knitted stockings and mittens for him even though it was summer and read him letters from his mother, which made him love his mother, even though sometimes he would look at the paper his grandmother held and see that there was no writing on it. And she spoke to him in Norwegian as if he were a little man and not a boy. The second time he went to live with his grandmother he was just six and he stayed with her at first in her small house in a little town near the Canadian border, in Minnesota. There were only a hundred and forty people living in this town and he lived with her in a two-room house that was set on the outskirts of the village near a small stream. The water made a wonderful burbling noise that helped him sleep when he thought of his mother in Chicago and missed her. Once, while his grandmother was sitting at the small table in the one room that served as parlor, living room and kitchen, he asked her, "If I miss Mother so much"--and he called her Mother then, although when he spoke to his mother he always called her Mom--"why is it that I can't be with her?" And his grandmother, who was crocheting what would become a bedspread, put her crocheting down on her lap. She took him in her arms, which he always liked but did not see a reason for now, and said, "She is living in a very fast time, your mother, and working very hard, and she would not have time to spend with you and that would make her sad. It's bad to be sad." "Sometimes in the night when I think of her and miss her I'm sad." "I know, I know. And that is why you're with me. That's just the way things are now." "Is it because of the war?" "Yes. It's the war." "I thought it was because of the men who came home with her from the plant where they make bullets for the soldiers." "No. Those men are nothing and you mustn't think about them." "Do they come home with her because of the war?" "Yes. They are nothing to think about." And she went back to her crochetingexcept that he could see that her fingers went very fast and hard with the crochet hook, and she missed a stitch and had to go back. He could tell that she was upset but could not understand why and thought it was something he'd said, and hugged her and stood next to her that way for several moments. Then he said, because he thought it would help, "I don't miss my father at all." Her fingers stopped for a moment, then continued, more slowly, and she sighed. "You never saw him. He was in the deserts in California training in tanks when you were born and they sent him right overseas." "But I will see him someday." "Yes." "After the war." "Yes, after the war." He thought for another moment. "When will the war be over?" Her fingers stopped again and her voice grew tight and with the clipped sound of her Norwegian accent had almost knife edges. "When men are sick and tired of being men . . ." She trailed off. "Never mind. The war will be over when it's over. Go play outside." It was summer and he played on the edge of the water and in the stream, which was only ankle-deep, making boats with leaves and sticks and lying down on his side to make them look bigger so they were like ships as they bounced and careened down the rapids. Enemy ships, which he had seen in newsreels on the rare occasions when his mother had taken him to Gene Autry and Roy Rogers movies in Chicago, which he liked very much--the movies--even though he did not know exactly what an enemy was except that one was German and one was Japaneseand he did not know exactly what they were except that they were bad and soldiers were fighting them. Excerpted from The Quilt by Gary Paulsen All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
For America, World War II lasted for nearly five years. During those years there was a time when the boy could not live with his mother. His father had gone off to fight one week after the boy was born and his motherwent to work in a munitions factory in Chicago. At first the boy lived with her in the tiny apartment by the elevated railway. Soon, though, other people--men--came to visit her and she started to do very grown-up things. He did not fit in, and when life with his mother became too difficult, he went to live with his grandmother. The first time this happened his grandmother was working as a cook for a group of men building a war road from northern Minnesota up into Canada. They spent a wonderful summer together; later he would remember only good things about those months and indeed all the times he was with his grandmother. He called her Grandma. Her name was Alida but he called her Grandma and he loved her very much, as he would love her the rest of her life and his life, and she adored him as well and cooked him apple pies and knitted stockings and mittens for him even though it was summer and read him letters from his mother, which made him love his mother, even though sometimes he would look at the paper his grandmother held and see that there was no writing on it. And she spoke to him in Norwegian as if he were a little man and not a boy. The second time he went to live with his grandmother he was just six and he stayed with her at first in her small house in a little town near the Canadian border, in Minnesota. There were only a hundred and forty people living in this town and he lived with her in a two-room house that was set on the outskirts of the village near a small stream. The water made a wonderful burbling noise that helped him sleep when he thought of his mother in Chicago and missed her. Once, while his grandmother was sitting at the small table in the one room that served as parlor, living room and kitchen, he asked her, "If I miss Mother so much"--and he called her Mother then, although when he spoke to his mother he always called her Mom--"why is it that I can't be with her?" And his grandmother, who was crocheting what would become a bedspread, put her crocheting down on her lap. She took him in her arms, which he always liked but did not see a reason for now, and said, "She is living in a very fast time, your mother, and working very hard, and she would not have time to spend with you and that would make her sad. It's bad to be sad." "Sometimes in the night when I think of her and miss her I'm sad." "I know, I know. And that is why you're with me. That's just the way things are now." "Is it because of the war?" "Yes. It's the war." "I thought it was because of the men who came home with her from the plant where they make bullets for the soldiers." "No. Those men are nothing and you mustn't think about them." "Do they come home with her because of the war?" "Yes. They are nothing to think about." And she went back to her crochetingexcept that he could see that her fingers went very fast and hard with the crochet hook, and she missed a stitch and had to go back. He could tell that she was upset but could not understand why and thought it was something he'd said, and hugged her and stood next to her that way for several moments. Then he said, because he thought it would help, "I don't miss my father at all." Her fingers stopped for a moment, then continued, more slowly, and she sighed. "You never saw him. He was in the deserts in California training in tanks when you were born and they sent him right overseas." "But I will see him someday." "Yes." "After the war." "Yes, after the war." He thought for another moment. "When will the war be over?" Her fingers stopped again and her voice grew tight and with the clipped sound of her Norwegian accent had almost knife edges. "When men are sick and tired of being men . . ." She trailed off. "Never mind. The war will be over when it's over. Go play outside." It was summer and he played on the edge of the water and in the stream, which was only ankle-deep, making boats with leaves and sticks and lying down on his side to make them look bigger so they were like ships as they bounced and careened down the rapids. Enemy ships, which he had seen in newsreels on the rare occasions when his mother had taken him to Gene Autry and Roy Rogers movies in Chicago, which he liked very much--the movies--even though he did not know exactly what an enemy was except that one was German and one was Japaneseand he did not know exactly what they were except that they were bad and soldiers were fighting them. Excerpted from The Quilt by Gary Paulsen All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
