Show Ways are quilts with secret meanings—guides to freedom. In this beautiful volume, quilts are the connecting threads of the generations, from Soonie’s great-grandmother, sold away from her Virginia home as a girl of seven, to Soonie’s great-great-granddaughter Toshi, Woodson’s daughter. It’s a celebration of mothers—all of those strong women through the generations who “loved those babies up.” Gorgeous multimedia art includes watercolors, chalk and fabric, photographs incorporated into original art and joyous watercolor figures jumping broom. Patchwork and crazy quilts are two common motifs used, the latter, with jagged stitching resembling railroad tracks, representing the harshest of times. Whether quilts were actual maps to freedom or such stories are simply folklore, quilts are a perfect device to portray the generations of a family. Like Deborah Hopkinson’s Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt (1993) and Under the Quilt of Night (2001) and Doreen Rappaport’s Freedom River (2000), this takes a difficult subject and makes it accessible to young readers. One of the most remarkable books of the year. (Picture book. 5+)
