A poignant generational story of legacy, creativity, and the ways traditions grow.
A rich tapestry of family identity is passed down through an heirloom quilt.
It all begins with the narrator’s great-great-grandmother, who starts a quilting project with the idea that each woman in the family would add a square featuring a meaningful image that reflects her personality or passions. The blanket travels through time and place as the story unfolds, introducing the women and their contributions: a beloved pet dog for the narrator’s great-grandmother, a pink seashell for a beachcombing grandmother, tomatoes for Aunt Lia, who loves to garden, and a clay pot for the narrator’s mother, a ceramic artist. Readers eventually learn that the narrator is Mateo, his mother’s only child and the next in line to inherit the quilt. Eager to include him in the tradition, his mother encourages him to sew his own square. Mateo chooses to stitch a picture of his baby daughter, leaving a blank spot beside it for her future contribution. A new tradition is born, one that allows the family to embrace change while still paying tribute to the past. Lushly textured artwork echoes the artistry of the quilt itself, adding depth and energy to each page. An illustrated family tree helps readers trace the lineage of the quilters leading up to Mateo and beyond. Acevedo’s tender story, translated from Spanish, celebrates the evolving nature of familial customs and the powerful ways we honor our heritage. Mateo and his family are pale-skinned.
A poignant generational story of legacy, creativity, and the ways traditions grow. (Picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9788410438033
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Cuento de Luz
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for...
A gentle voice and familiar pitfalls characterize this tale of a boy navigating the risky road to responsibility.
Gavin is new to his neighborhood and Carver Elementary. He likes his new friend, Richard, and has a typically contentious relationship with his older sister, Danielle. When Gavin’s desire to impress Richard sets off a disastrous chain of events, the boy struggles to evade responsibility for his actions. “After all, it isn’t his fault that Danielle’s snow globe got broken. Sure, he shouldn’t have been in her room—but then, she shouldn’t be keeping candy in her room to tempt him. Anybody would be tempted. Anybody!” opines Gavin once he learns the punishment for his crime. While Gavin has a charming Everyboy quality, and his aversion to Aunt Myrtle’s yapping little dog rings true, little about Gavin distinguishes him from other trouble-prone protagonists. He is, regrettably, forgettable. Coretta Scott King Honor winner English (Francie, 1999) is a teacher whose storytelling usually benefits from her day job. Unfortunately, the pizzazz of classroom chaos is largely absent from this series opener.
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for subsequent volumes. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-97044-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books.
Curious about the Big Wide World outside his Sasquatch community, Hugo makes a friend who is of it.
Sasquatch Hugo’s bedroom is inside a cave and possesses the charming feature of a small stream running through it that he can sail his little toy boat on. It’s cool, but he yearns to see the Big Wide World. When he asks his smart friend Gigi if a Sasquatch might become a sailor, she says it’s possible but would be difficult—the primary rule of their people is to not be seen by Humans. Then, in everyone’s favorite Hide and Go Sneak class, which is held outside, a Human appears; Hugo laughs at the sight, drawing Human attention in a taboo-breaking mistake. Shortly after, Hugo’s toy boat floats into the cave with a Human toy—soon, it’s facilitating a pen-pal–type relationship that’s derailed when Hugo confesses to being a Sasquatch and Human Boone, a budding cryptozoologist, doesn’t believe him. How Hugo and Boone resolve this misapprehension and become friends in a joint search for the Ogopogo concludes this series opener. Potter keeps the third-person narrative tightly focused on Hugo’s perspective, and the details she uses to flesh out the Sasquatch world are delightfully playful. Sala’s drawings depict a homey Sasquatch cavern community, Boone as a freckled, white boy, and Hugo as a hairily benevolent behemoth.
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books. (final art unseen) (Fantasy. 5-9)Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2859-4
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
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