The Patchwork Path: A Quilt Map to Freedom

Rating:
Summary: Modern-Day Myth-Making
Review: As pretty as the pictures are, the story that children 4-8 are being told in this book has as much truth as Washington chopping down a cherry tree or Betsy Ross making the nation's first flag. Unfortunately the author presents the story as fact and not the fiction that it is. Virtually all quilt and textile historians and historians of the Underground Railroad (both white and black people) have found absolutely no evidence to corruborate the 1990's fabrication of a quilt code being used to guide slaves to freedom. It is a shame that folks anxious to make a few dollars off of this attractive but false story are teaching it to our children to the exclusion of true tales of heroic 19th century African Americans.

Rating:
Summary: inspiring story, handsome illustrations
Review: This tale of a child who makes a quilt as a map for her escape along the Underground Railroad is an inspiring story with handsome, earth-toned illustrations. The characters' stylized faces reflect the book's storybook "climate." I am not going to present this story to students as a slice of realistic history about the harsh period of slavery (that stain on our country's history). Instead, I'll present this lovely story as an idealized portrait about the human spirit prevailing against darkness/suffering. The main character is a child - born a slave, torn from family - who creates a quilt to guide her to freedom. Her quilt is really a symbol of order and beauty. This is a story about human ingenuity using the resources at hand to prevail against weighty odds, to triumph.

Rating:
Summary: Rehash of the disputed secret quilt code
Review: This wonderfully illustrated book attempts to tell the story of a little girl and her father and their quest to find freedom from slavery. What is most disturbing is that the book's content focuses on the "secret quilt code" which scholars and historians have been disputing ever since the book Hidden in Plain View was published in 1999.

Even though we realize that the use of quilts with secret messages is an appealing theme, researchers have found no evidence that quilts or quilt blocks were used in any way to guide slaves to freedom. Thus, this book shares incorrect historical information with an unsuspecting audience. This does a great disservice to African-American people everywhere especially when there are more worthy topics that could be covered which celebrate their strength, ingenuity, and courage in the face of adversity.