Unless otherwise indicated, all the annotations on this page were contributed by Marlaine DesChamps.

Blackwood, Mary. Derek the Knitting Dinosaur. Illustrated by Kerry Argent. Minneapolis; Carolrhoda Books, 1990.

This story, written in rhyming verse, tells the tale of a dinosaur named Derek who spends his time knitting instead of doing "regular" dinosaur things. When the Ice Age arrives, Derek is able to save his brothers by providing them with warm sweaters, hats, mittens, scarves, and blankets. This story speaks to all children who may feel that they do not fit in with others in their group because they have different interests or talents. It successfully points out that everyone's talents should be appreciated. The illustrations are lively and colorful and the expressions on the dinosaurs' faces are especially lifelike.

Brown, Craig. The Patchwork Farmer. New York; Greenwillow Books, 1989.

This wordless picture book depicts the story of a farmer who, time after time, manages to rip his overalls while working. He repeatedly patches his overalls with colorful cloth and thread. In the end, as the sun rises over his fields, the farmer discovers that his patched overalls are not unlike the fields that he tends. The illustrations in this book are beautiful and clearly show us how the farmer fixes his overalls time and time again pointing out to us the care he takes in fixing them. In the end we can see that though the basket of patches is empty they have been put to a very good use.

Christiansen, Candace. The Mitten Tree. Illustrated by Elaine Greenstein. Colorado; Fulcrum Kids, 1997.

This book is about a older woman, who upon seeing a boy at the bus stop one snowy day without any mittens, knits mittens for all the children in the neighborhood. She hangs the mittens on a tree during the night so that the children do not know who makes the mittens. But one day when she runs out of yarn, a big basket of yarn appears on her doorstep leading the reader to believe that someone does indeed know who is doing the knitting. This is a wonderful story for children to hear as it points out the sense of caring and giving that the older woman displays through her knitting and that the children reciprocate by giving her more yarn. The sense of mystery surrounding who knows who does the knitting and who supplies the yarn will also be fun for children to wonder about.

Cole, Barbara Hancock. Texas Star. Illustrated by Barbara Minton. New York; Orchard Books, 1990.

This book tells the story of how a family prepares to host a quilting party. After the chores to prepare for winter are done, the guest room is cleaned and food prepared for the quilters who are coming to complete a Texas Star quilt. The party is a success and the quilt is completed before the first snow flies. The words and illustrations work well together so that the reader gets a very strong sense of a family working together toward a common goal, in this case, preparing for a quilting party. This sense of family is clearly evident in the last page of the book where the entire family has the new quilt wrapped around them as they read a book together.

dePaola, Tomie. Charlie Needs a Cloak. Illustrated by Tomie dePaola. New York; Simon and Schuster, 1973.

This book has a very sparse text, but in just a few words, is able to tell the entire story of how a sheep's fleece gets turned into clothing. It does this through the example of Charlie, a lovable shepherd who tends his flock and makes the woolen cloth. The wonderful and amusing illustrations are a story in themselves. By paying close attention to all of the illustrations, the reader can get to know the sheep better and how they playfully interact with Charlie. I found this to be a delightful book that even those not closely associated with fiberarts would enjoy.

Grimes, Nikki. Aneesa Lee and the Weaver's Gift. Illustrated by Ashley Bryan. New York; Lothrop, Lee, and Shepard Books, 1999.

This is a book of poetry centering around a girl named Aneesa Lee and the weaving, spinning, and dyeing that she does. Within the words of the poetry we can hear how Aneesa feels about all of these things - about the hard work and joy that goes into it all, but above all, how her emotions are tied up within the yarn and the pieces of fabric that she weaves. The illustrations are vibrantly colored and enhance the emotions evoked by reading the poetry. They are an excellent complement to the poetry.

Grimm, Brothers. Retold by Paul O. Zelinsky. Rumpelstiltskin. Illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky. New York; E.P. Dutton, 1986.

This classic fairy tale centers on the skill of spinning, and in this case, the magical skill of spinning straw into gold. The miller's daughter, who is unable to spin straw into gold, is saved by Rumpelstiltskin, a little man who can do so. In payment for his skill he requests her first born child unless she can guess his name, which she does, after a scout spies on him and hears him say it in a rhyme. The act of spinning serves as a main part of this story. While spinning may have been a skill taken for granted during this time period, the authors put a twist on this everyday skill by making it magical in the hands of Rumpelstiltskin. Making the everyday magical is part of what fairy tales do best and this tale is no exception. The beautiful illustrations serve to enhance the telling of the story and especially the frustration of the miller's daughter when she is at first unable to come up with Rumpelstiltskin's name.

Johnston, Tony. The Quilt Story. Illustrated by Tomie dePaola. New York; G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1985.

This is a simply told story about a quilt that is stitched by a pioneer mother for her daughter, Abigail. Abigail takes the quilt with her everywhere and takes great comfort in having it, especially after her family moves. It eventually gets stored in the attic and is found many years later by another little girl who then asks her mother to repair it. She too, takes the quilt with her everywhere and takes great comfort in having it. This well written, poetic story successfully points out to the reader the feeling of love that can go into a quilt and how these feelings can be carried through generations. The simple and colorful illustrations are a wonderful complement to the story.

Mills, Lauren. The Rag Coat. Illustrated by Lauren Mills. Boston; Little, Brown and Company, 1991.

This is the story of a little girl named Minna living in the Appalachia Mountains. She wants to go to school, but since she does not have a coat she can not go to school. The Quilting Mothers come to the rescue and make her a patchwork coat from all of their scraps. The children at school make fun of Minna until she explains to them where all the patches have come from and tells them the story behind each patch. The text of the book, while longer than some picture books, tells this story with sensitivity and caring. We can really feel what Minna is feeling by reading the words and looking at the elegantly done, beautiful pictures.

Polacco, Patricia. The Keeping Quilt. Illustrated by Patricia Polacco. New York; Simon and Schuster, 1988.

This is a wonderful story centering around a quilt, stitched from pieces of clothing from relatives from a family that immigrated to the United States. Each piece of the quilt has its own story behind it and as it is handed down through four generations, the stories are retold over and over again keeping the family heritage alive and well. The story is very well written and clearly shows us how the quilt played a part in everyone's life. The illustrations are especially beautiful - they are all done in brown tones except for the quilt, which is depicted in color everywhere it appears thus strengthening the strong sense of family inherent in this piece of cloth.

Brumbeau, Jeff. The Quiltmakers Gift. Illustrated by Gail de Marcken. Duluth, Minnesota: Pfeifer-Hamilton Publishers, 2000.

A solitary quiltmaker devotes her life to sewing "the prettiest quilts anyone had ever seen." (p. 1, although there are no numbered pages in this book) A greedy, unhappy king covets a quilt for his own, but discovers this is something all his riches cannot buy. With the help of the old quiltmaker, the king finds happiness through the sharing of his great wealth. In this fable, the text, and rich, watercolor illustrations together form an interesting interweaving of quilt designs and the legends attached to them. Each page features a different framed quilt square; it is fascinating to find how its legends or visual associations are expertly joined to become an integral part of the story. (Annotation submitted by Mary Pat Connors)

Guback, Georgia. Luka's Quilt. New York: Greenwillow Books, 1994.

Georgia Guback affectionately tells a tale of traditional Hawaiian life. Grandmother Tutu teaches Luka traditional Hawaiian crafts of sewing two-colored quilts and making leis. However Luka becomes frustrated when her unorthodox ideas are not embraced. Guback effectively demonstrates the sometime collision between traditional values and change, and the positive benefits of compromise. Her cut paper collage delightfully illustrates the colorful island life. (Annotation submitted by Mary Pat Connors)

Ernst, Lisa Campbell. Sam Johnson and the Blue Ribbon Quilt. New York: Lothrup, Lee & Shepard Books, 1983.

The local ladies quilt club will never be the same once Sam Johnson tries to enter its ranks. When Sam's quilting efforts and interests are rejected, he starts his own men's sewing group. They create a quilt to challenge the ladies at the county fair quilt contest. Campbell uses a different quilt pattern to frame each page and the charming pen and ink colored illustrations. Rural America and the quilting tradition are both gaily celebrated by the author. The result is a humorous and engaging story. (Annotation submitted by Mary Pat Connors)

• Charlie Needs a Cloak can be used in a program that focuses on making things or manufacturing items. It would be interesting to point out that all woolen goods come from sheep and must go through this basic process. This could tie in with the making of other goods and services in a social studies type unit for younger grades with themes centering on questions such as "Where does this come from?" and "How does this get to us?". Also included in a program of this type could be how we get fruits and vegetables from farms and how trees are used to make paper.
• As Patricia Polacco pointed out in a video we saw [in class], The Keeping Quilt could be used as part of a lesson on immigration. Other topics that can be tied into this are keeping a family's history alive, keeping a culture's tradition's alive, and how those traditions can change and be adapted to a new lifestyle. A good activity for this topic and keeping with the theme of the book would be to have each member of the class bring in something from their families that has been passed down through the generations. They could then take turns sharing these items with class members telling any family stories that go along with the heirloom.
• A program dealing with the preparing for the coming of winter could use the books Derek the Knitting Dinosaur and The Mitten Tree to point out how we need to dress warmly for the coming of winter. This could lead to a discussion of other things that need to be done by people to prepare for the winter and how nature, and in particular, animals, prepare for the coming of winter such a squirrels storing nuts and bears getting ready to hibernate.
• A program centering on recycling and reusing things could use The Patchwork Farmer, The Rag Coat, The Quilt Story, and The Keeping Quilt as examples of how fabrics are saved and then reused and put to a good purpose. As a class activity, each child could take a pre-cut piece of paper and color it in any way that they choose with a small drawing or a pattern. These pieces of paper could then be glued to a larger backing piece of paper making a class patchwork sampler out of paper instead of out of fabric.
• After reading Aneesa Lee and the Weaver's Gift students could try their hand at writing their own poetry about their hobbies and/or special interests. By using these poems as examples, students' poetry could center around different aspects of their hobbies such as the processes they undertake, the finished products they end up with, or the joys and/or frustrations that they experience while doing these hobbies.
• Use The Quiltmakers Gift for learning about folk legends and folk crafts. Activity: 1. Provide triangles/squares to make an original quilt design. 2. Draw a quilt square and tell a story about it.   3. Use the book website: www.QuiltmakersGift.com   4. Take a popular book and show how a quilt design could be derived from it. e.g. The Cat in the Hat. (Using the stovepipe hat as a repeating design) (Mary Pat Connors)
• Some uses for Luka's Quilt: 1. Multicultural study, Hawaiian traditions and crafts. 2. Compare with other quilt books such as The Quiltmakers Gift, Sam Johnson and the Blue Ribbon Quilt. (See McElmeel, Sharron L. Q is for Quilts, Literature Frameworks - From Apples to Zoos. Worthington, Ohio: Linworth Publishing Inc., 1997. 3. Learn about collage, compare to books by Ezra Jack Keats and Eric Carle. (Mary Pat Connors)
• Sam Johnson and the Blue Ribbon Quilt: Use for a discussion on gender equity. Discussion of "boy/girl" activities, chores and careers, and how these may have changed over the years. (Mary Pat Connors)