A Far-Fetched Story

I found this book to go with a quilting art project we wanted to carry out at our preschool. The children loved hearing this read aloud. The language is rhythmic with opportunities for different voices. The story has some ambiguous qualities that lead to interesting discussions. And, it conveys perfectly to three and four year olds how quilts come to be and how comforting they are. The book is also visually very interesting. A big hit.

In this book, grandma goes out to her woodpile one fall and decides that she will need some more wood to make it through the winter. She asks her grandson to go into the forest to get some more wood, but he gets distracted along the way, and comes back empty handed with his shirt in tatters. Rather than berate him about not bringing back any wood, grandma simply takes his shirt away and throws it in the woodbox instead. She sends each of the other family members to the forest in turn, with similar results. By the beginning of winter, she gets no additional firewood, and her family are cold, since their clothes are in her woodbox. Then grandma gets the brilliant idea of making a quilt with the tattered clothes, that will keep everyone warm much longer than the wood might have. The story is quite engaging and full of thought, and the pictures tell stories in themselves. All told, the book has about 1000 words.

This is a really good book with great illustrations and a funny storyline that you won't mind having to read over and over again to your kids. It is a story that lends itself to animated storytelling, if you are like me and like to liven up bedtime stories with lots of inflection and a different voice for each character in the book. Your kids will love the funny far-fetched stories and the interesting illustrations that incorporate fabric from articles of clothing in the story into the illustrations. The illustrations will be especially interesting to those moms who enjoy quilting and needlework when they are not running around after kids or reading them 5 or 6 bedtime stories. Highly recommended.