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."

Reviews

Gr 6 Up-In this semi-autobiographical novella, Paulsen again writes lovingly about the grandmother who provided such warmth and comfort in his difficult young life during and after World War II. The protagonist, first met in The Cookcamp (Orchard, 1991) and later in Alida's Song (Delacorte, 1999) is still "the boy," an impersonal term that keeps readers at a distance. It is hard to feel empathy with an anonymous child who is described with adult sensibilities, even though some of the scenes are powerfully written. Especially evocative is the description of the boy and his grandmother's stay with a pregnant cousin who delivers a son and then learns that her husband has been killed in action. However, when the six-year-old questions his grandmother about the men his mother brings back to their apartment and whether they have anything to do with the war, the observation seems forced. Also, the pacing is slow and deliberate. The quilt of the title is how he learns about his heritage and his extended family. However, it is mentioned at the end of the first chapter and not addressed again until nearly 50 pages later. This story works best as an adult reflection and does not have much appeal or relevancy to younger readers.-Edith Ching, St. Albans School, Mt. St. Alban, Washington, DC Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.