The relatable, touching story of an elderly matriarch who sews love into cozy quilts.
In this gentle, well-crafted picture book for young children, an elderly matriarch lovingly sews quilts for her numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren and receives an unexpected gift of love in return.
Kind and caring Great-Grandma decides to give her 35 grandchildren and great-grandchildren a gift that will remind them of her “love every night and every morning, and that will make them smile.” She sets about crafting quilted comforters for each one of them. Made with her own hands, each comforter will be “warm and soft, just like a hug.” At first, Great-Grandma plans to piece together the nearly three-dozen patchwork quilts, but with a between-the-lines poignancy that will resonate with adults, the author conveys the elderly woman’s realization of time passing: “Great-Grandma was a wise woman and she knew her hands were getting tired,” and she determines that sewing “thirty-five solid-colored comforters of love” will be better than “six pieced quilts of struggle.” One by one, the comforters take shape, with two small helpers in attendance: great-grandson Walter and great-granddaughter Gretchen, who asks if she might keep the pretty scraps of cloth that she collects from the floor as Great-Grandma works. The scraps are “remnants,” explains Great-Grandma, “leftover bits that are too tiny to do much with,” but Gretchen takes them home to her mother, who carefully stores the remnants away. Finally, the quilting is done, and Great-Grandma’s warm and cozy gifts are boxed up, sent, and received with love and appreciation by all the recipients. But how can the family reciprocate? In this story of familial caring, told with simplicity and sweetness—and complemented by quiet illustrations in soft colors—Gretchen’s mom has the answer: a handmade gift for Great-Grandma that comes with a “warm and soft” hug of its own. Endearingly presented with simple but resonant affection, this picture book celebrates multigenerational families, and it will have children appreciating them, too.
The relatable, touching story of an elderly matriarch who sews love into cozy quilts.Pub Date: Dec. 13, 2011
ISBN: 978-1613464649
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Tate Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Menacing and most likely to appeal to established fans of its co-creators.
Existing artwork from an artistic giant inspires a fairy-tale reimagination by a master of the horror genre.
In King’s interpretation of a classic Brothers Grimm story, which accompanies set and costume designs that the late Sendak created for a 1997 production of Engelbert Humperdinck’s opera, siblings Hansel and Gretel survive abandonment in the woods and an evil witch’s plot to gobble them up before finding their “happily ever after” alongside their father. Prose with the reassuring cadence of an old-timey tale, paired with Sendak’s instantly recognizable artwork, will lull readers before capitalizing on these creators’ knack for injecting darkness into seemingly safe spaces. Gaping faces loom in crevices of rocks and trees, and a gloomy palette of muted greens and ocher amplify the story’s foreboding tone, while King never sugarcoats the peach-skinned children’s peril. Branches with “clutching fingers” hide “the awful enchanted house” of a “child-stealing witch,” all portrayed in an eclectic mix of spot and full-bleed images. Featuring insults that might strike some as harsh (“idiot,” “fool”), the lengthy, dense text may try young readers’ patience, and the often overwhelmingly ominous mood feels more pitched to adults—particularly those familiar with King and Sendak—but an introduction acknowledges grandparents as a likely audience, and nostalgia may prompt leniency over an occasional disconnect between words and art.
Menacing and most likely to appeal to established fans of its co-creators. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9780062644695
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
An entertaining take on family values, Wimpy Kid style.
A summer vacation turns out to be anything but relaxing for Greg and a teeming horde of Heffleys.
Gramma declines the offer of a grand birthday celebration, saying that “what would make her REALLY happy is if everyone else went to Ruttyneck Island”—though she prepares individual packs of her legendary meatballs. (“You knew exactly how much Gramma likes you by how many meatballs you got.”) A gaggle of Heffley relatives and a dog stuff themselves into a small beach house, where overcrowding, personality conflicts, and simmering resentments become just some of the ingredients in a rolling boil of sitcom-style catastrophes, not to mention questionable decisions ranging from leaving the kids to make dinner unsupervised to labeling a cooler “HUMAN ORGANS” to keep random passersby from helping themselves. As usual, Greg supplies the setups in poker-faced journal entries interspersed with black-and-white drawings of slouched figures bearing frowny expressions of dismay or annoyance to cue the laffs. Gramma, it eventually turns out, not only (unsurprisingly) has plans of her own, but is also keeping a shocking secret about those meatballs. To go with the knee-slapping set pieces, Kinney slips in a tasty bit of family lore about how Greg’s parents met, plus droll takes on such low-hanging comedy fruit as restaurant manners, viciously competitive board games, and social media influencers (Greg being one, albeit with zero followers, and his Aunt Veronica’s little dog being another, with 3.8 million).
An entertaining take on family values, Wimpy Kid style. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2024
ISBN: 9781419766954
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
