Snag The Quilts Of Gees Bend Produced By Susan Goldman Rubin Accessible In Publication

I plucked this from the library shelves, I mistakenly thought it was a picture book, I saw "quilts" and didn't think twice before checking it out, While it contains dozens of wonderful images, there's a lot of wellresearched text about quilts and quilters from Gee's Bend, Alabama.
This would be appropriate material for a middle schooler's independent research, and it would be useful as a readaloud for younger children, especially since the text directly relates to the images of the quilts.




When it comes to history, there's little I love more than learning about women's lives and traditional work.
Textiles is just the cherry on top, Quilting in this Alabama community is a timehonored tradition, A few interested people with connections eventually got museums to display Gee's Bend quilts, and they even made it onto US postage.
The Quilts of Gee's Bend places this practice in the history of the area, with an emphasis on the quilts themselves.
I especially loved learning about Missouri Pettway'sworkclothes quilt, about which she says, "I going to take his work clothes, shape them into a quilt to remember him, and cover up under it for love.
"The book describes how quilters pieced, sewed, and filled their quilts, Most often, it seems, they created brightly colored twists on and combinations of traditional patterns,


"Stacked Bricks" by Nettie Young,

Reading this book made me realize quilting can be a great way to teach geometry.
I'm no math expert, but quilts and piecing can easily be used to teach concepts from basic shapes to filling an area with disparate shapes, with lots of measurement practice along the way.
Of course, this book has great historical value for illuminating women's lives in Alabama in theth century, too.
It features a map at the beginning, notes and works cited at the end, and a tutorial on quilting.


Of course, I have to take this opportunity to plug one of my favorite contemporary artists, Bisa Butler.
She quilts the most incredible portraits I've ever seen, using only fabric and threadno paint or mixed media.
Butler is from New Jersey, but graduated with a degree in fine art from Howard University, an HBCU, and has spoken about her connection to Black quilters from the past.
She works in life scale, The colors she uses connects her work visually with quilts like those from Gee's Bend, but she favors fabrics from all over Africa, including Ghana, where her father is from, and her style is vividly representational rather than geometric.
Just look at her portrait of Frederick Douglass:


Detail from The Storm, the Whirlwind, and the Earthquake

And this portrait of young women from the earlyth century:


Detail from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, based on the following image:


"Four African American women seated on steps of building at Atlanta University, Georgia," Thomas E.
Askew


tldr QUILTS, Y'ALL, Bloom's Taxonomy:
Using the levels of Bloom's Taxonomy can help a child understand the content in a larger, nonfiction book.
By allowing them to make their own connections and look at the information in depth, allows them to better understand the material.
Here are some examples of questions I use to help students understand and connect with The Quilts of Gee's Bend:

Recognizing: Identify the different patterns of quilts created in Gees Bend.

Understanding: Compare and contrast the types of “Housetop” quilts seen in the book,
Applying: Choose one of the designs and describe it,
Analyzing: The women of Gees Bend would make quilts out of whatever they had for scraps.
Explain how this made them unique,
Evaluating: Pretend you were an art appraiser looking for new art in your gallery.
Would you include the Gees Bend quilts, Why or why not
Creating: Draw your own quilt square,
I enjoyed this book but I can't imagine it will find a very large juvenile audience.
This is a gorgeous and inspiring look at the quilts of Gee's Bend, their history, and the people who made them.
It is kept pretty simple because it is meant for children, but the tragedy and suffering of these ladies and their families is not whitewashed.
I would have liked more information about each of the ladies who made the quilts, but there are books for adults that have that.

I recommend this book not just to children interested in history, art, or crafts, but for adults with interests in the same areas.
It is a great introduction to the quiltskeep an eye out because an exhibit could come to a museum near you! I was so fortunate as to see some of them in the Wiregrass Museum of Art in Dothan, AL.
And if you are a quilter you surely will find the quilts fascinating! This book will serve as a good reminder of why quilts were made to begin with, and what they were made of.
Lots of great information and full page photos of the quilts, but it does seem like it is missing a through line to keep kids engaged in the story.
A handsomely illustrated history of the women who quilted over the years at Gee's Bend, Alabama, They started during the time of slavery and continued as a community through the years, supporting each other and teaching the next generation of quilter/ artists.
It's a compelling read for one with some knowledge of the history perhaps a bit dry for young readers.
One photo seems to be incorrectly captioned, I loved

seeing the quilts and their creators and learning the history of Gee's Benders, This book brought me into a glimpse of how hard it was for tenant farmers and how inspired, motivated, and driven they were by Martin Luther King, Jr.

There's even instructions in the back to make your own quilt block and turn it into a full quilt!.