Quilts and Entropy

Family Heirlooms
Photo by Karen D. Austin

I love textiles. 

Life can be cold and hard edged, so I love to surround myself with sheets, blankets, and quilts. I also have a lot of towels for the bathroom and kitchen, but today I am thinking about quilts. We own several store-bought items, but I feel especially comforted when I snuggle up with quilt made especially for me or a member of my family. 

My beds usually have layers of blankets, comforters, and quilts on them so that I can burrow into a nest of softness and warmth.   

I don't know how to knit, crotchet, quilt, or sew. Consequently, any hand-made items in my house came from one of several women in my extended family--my mother, Donna; my mother-in-law, Linda; my sisters, Julie and Michelle; and my own grandmothers, Thelma, Viola, and Doreen. 

Today I was packing up some of these heirloom quilts and thinking about the generation above me. How these women haunt me--in ways that are assuring as well as ways that are a bit unnerving. 

Mother's Day 2023 Gift Guide: NF Kidlit

 

"Reading to children." by San José Public Library 
is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Many women who nurture children enjoy receiving children's books as gifts. I do!  I can keep them at home so that young visitors have reading material. Or I can take these books with me when visiting young readers.  I am not yet a grandmother, but many of my peers are. (I am in my sixties.)  Mother's Day can include 

• mothers
• bonus mothers (step-mothers and other partners of parents)
• grandmothers
• aunts and great aunts
• fictive kin family members. (I am an "auntie" or "grandmother" of sorts to friends' children)
• teachers
• librarians
• and MORE!  Many people nurture children. 

I was recently invited to judge the nonfiction category for the Cybil Awards.  I have only been a judge fore one year. I read 85+ nonfiction children's books that were published between October 1, 2022 and September 30, 2023. I loved many of them.  I am invited to continue, so I will probably do another gift guide, maybe in time for the holidays at the end of this year. 

This list from the 85 titles is not definitively "the best" of the lot.  Investigate for yourself. See my Goodreads list for all books that I read in 2022 (which includes more than just kidlit titles). It was hard to choose just eight books! 

Younger Elementary School Readers (or listeners)

Ford, Bernette G. with Ilustrator Frank Morrison.  Uncle John's City Garden. 

Bernette G. Ford writes a story inspired by true events. The main character of her book is a young girl who spends a summer helping her Uncle John maintain a garden plot in the city. The book provides an overview of the gardening basics: preparing the soil, planting seeds, watching things grow, harvesting, and sharing the yield with friends and family.  

The book's target audience is probably students in the lower elementary grades (K-3 or 5 to 8 year olds).  But adults can read this aloud to preschoolers, and older readers will find the project of urban gardening interesting. 

Frank Morrison's illustrations are rich and lush and show vibrancy and community in an urban area. Too many children watch TV shows that only depict Black neighborhoods and the projects as a site of decay and crime. The photos complement the story in showing a good work ethic and strong family ties. These are depictions that need more visibility.

Kaner, Etta with Illustrator June Steube. Dig, Dance, Dive: How Birds Move to Survive. 

The book dedicates two pages to describing an action that birds can perform.  For example: 

"Birds Twist. How far can you twist hour neck? Like many owls, a long-eared owl can turn its neck nearly 270 degrees in either direction. That's all most all the way around! Why does it do that? To see better." 

The accompanying illustration depicts a family of owls: three adults and four babies sitting on a tree. Some of the owls have their heads twisted--15 degrees, 45 degrees, 180 degrees from upright.

 

After highlighting an action per page, the book ends with smaller illustrations next to seven more actions: climb, dig, walk, run, dance, stalk, and dive.