Maw Books

Maw Books – book reviews, book recommendations, book lists, author interviews and more!

Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by Hudson Talbott is a 2006 Newbery Honor book and let me tell you, I think this book is amazing.  Absolutely beautiful both in lyric and illustration.  I lingered on each page with admiration but wanted to quickly turn the page to see what came next.  Show Way is a journey down the author’s maternal family tree of seven generations of grandmothers and mothers and ends with her own daughter.  It begins,

When Soonie’s great-grandma was seven
she was sold from the Virginia land to a plantation
in South Carolina without her ma or pa
but with some muslin her ma had given her.
And two needles she got
from the big house – a
and thread dyed bright red
with berries from the
chokecherry tree.

And so it was that on the plantation Soonie was taught to sew using that colored thread and made stars, moons, and roads.  It was these freedom quilts that would lead slaves through the night as a map to a better life.  With each passing generation, each woman had a baby girl and each learned how to sew and how to make their “Show Way.”

When Soonie
was seven, she was tall
and straight-boned like her mama,
took in wash with her mama.
Sewed stars on patch pieces.
Sewed stars and moons and roads;
sewed fields and rivers and trees.
Patched the pieces together for
her mama to sell come market day.
Called those quilts Trail to the North.
Called the quilts Show Way.
Didn’t much need that secret trail
to the North anymore,
but started living well off
the money those quilts
brought in.

Jacqueline Woodson takes us through the civil rights movement, to her own journey of telling the stories of people’s Show Ways through books, and to the birth of her own daughter.  The illustrations by Hudson Talbott are simply stunning and thread themselves through the book in a quilt motif.  They tell so much about the background, culture, trials and triumphs of a people.  Beautiful book, one that I will not soon forget.  I want to wrap myself up into this book.  Highly recommended.

Other books I’ve reviewed by Jacqueline Woodson:  Feathers, If You Come Softly,and Behind You. Jacqueline also just received a 2009 Newbery Honor for After Tupac and D Foster (which I need to track down).  Visit Jacqueline Woodson’s website.

Show Way is part of my themed reading for the month of February which celebrates Black History Month.  Join me this month as I explore books that celebrate the history of African-Americans.

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