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Alida #3
The Quilt
1944. Wartime.
A six-year-old boy goes to spend the summer with his grandmother Alida in a small town near the Canadian border. With the men all gone off to fight, the women are left to run the farms. There’s plenty for the boy to do—trying to help with the chores, getting to know the dog, and the horses, cows, pigs, and chickens.
But when his cousin Kristina goes into labor, he can’t do a thing. Instead, the house fills with women come to help and to wait, and to work on a quilt together. This is no common, everyday quilt, but one that contains all the stories of the boy’s family. The quilt tells the truth, past and of happiness, courage, and pain; of the greatest joy, and the greatest loss. And as they wait, the women share these memorable stories with the boy.
A six-year-old boy goes to spend the summer with his grandmother Alida in a small town near the Canadian border. With the men all gone off to fight, the women are left to run the farms. There’s plenty for the boy to do—trying to help with the chores, getting to know the dog, and the horses, cows, pigs, and chickens.
But when his cousin Kristina goes into labor, he can’t do a thing. Instead, the house fills with women come to help and to wait, and to work on a quilt together. This is no common, everyday quilt, but one that contains all the stories of the boy’s family. The quilt tells the truth, past and of happiness, courage, and pain; of the greatest joy, and the greatest loss. And as they wait, the women share these memorable stories with the boy.
96 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
19 people are currently reading
350 people want to read
About the author
Gary Paulsen
390Ìýbooks3,834ÌýfollowersGary James Paulsen was an American writer of children's and young adult fiction, best known for coming-of-age stories about the wilderness. He was the author of more than 200 books and wrote more than 200 magazine articles and short stories, and several plays, all primarily for teenagers. He won the Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 1997 for his lifetime contribution in writing for teens.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 105 reviews
October 22, 2024
An absolute delight to read as an adult - I truly wonder what my response would have been as a younger me - the depths it took me now, surely would have been missed in those shallow years.
Regardless, a 5 star recommendation. I'm eagerly seeking out the #1 and #2 of this series to fill in the gaps. For all those who've been in a circle quilting, tending home, being tended or birthing. . .this world will feel familiar and known.
Regardless, a 5 star recommendation. I'm eagerly seeking out the #1 and #2 of this series to fill in the gaps. For all those who've been in a circle quilting, tending home, being tended or birthing. . .this world will feel familiar and known.
June 16, 2020
So yes, it was only because Gary Paulsen's The Quilt (a short children's novel based on the author's own childhood and the third in a series presenting the author's relationship with his maternal grandmother Alida) was being read as a GR group read and was both available at the local library and seemed to have an interesting and intriguing enough premise that I even bothered adding it to my to-read list. For I have NEVER been all that much a fan of especially Gary Paulsen's narration and writing style, but decided to join in the group read because The Quilt thematically did look rather appealing and actually even potentially right up my proverbial alley so to speak (with me generally being a fan of historical fiction for children, especially if it is based on actual, autobiographical events). And while thematically, The Quilt certainly does make good on what it promises (presenting both adequately and interestingly depicted scenarios and an informative lesson on Norwegian immigrants in the Mid-West, including the deeper meanings of what the act, the very concept of quilting represents), on a personal and emotional level, I simply cannot get past the writing style and the fact that the main character (who seems to represent Gary Paulsen as a young child) is ONLY ever referred to as "the boy" and is NEVER once called by his first, by his given name (or even some kind of an affectionate nickname).
The general writing style of The Quilt therefore has (at least in my opinion) a more than troubling sensation of being both majorly distancing and distracting, and the namelessness of the main protagonist stops me from becoming in any way emotionally attached to either him or the events, the scenarios depicted. In fact, the narration style of The Quilt actually does even feel somewhat coldly chilling to and for me (and makes me wonder whether Gary Paulsen had during his sojourns with his grandmother also been simply referred to as "the boy" in truth, a tendency that I have always considered much problematic both in books and in real life, as it sure does seem to depersonalise children and makes them appear more as objects than as legitimate individually characterized people, entities to be ordered around, but not to be taken seriously).
And yes, I actually am so massively disconnected from especially the characters (and in particular the nameless "boy") that reading The Quilt kind of gives the rather weirdly strange sensation as though I am in a way perusing a children's version of Berthold Brecht (who deliberately makes his writing absurd, unemotional and impossible to internalise). However, while for Brecht (whose oeuvre is meant for adults and for thought, debate, discussion), this kind of disconnection is actually a necessary and an essential requirement, in The Quilt this kind of emotional distancing does not really make any type of sense at all, as immediacy and emotional attachment to the presented and depicted characters (and events) are actually or should really be both desired and demanded. For I feel absolutely nothing with regard to the boy's absent mother (and that his father is fighting in WWII), I feel no sense of excitement with regard to the young life about to be born and even the quilting stories essentially and frustratingly leave me both cold and majorly bored.
And I am thus never even remotely an active participant in the events presented and described, just an outsider looking in, massively feeling like someone reading a dry history textbook (or as mentioned above attending the theatre of the absurd). Therefore, one star is all that I can and will consider for Gary Paulsen's The Quilt (as from a narrative standpoint, it not only leaves everything to be desired, it is tedious, monotonous and in all ways not a reading pleasure, in fact, simply a major disappointment and a total waste of my reading time).
The general writing style of The Quilt therefore has (at least in my opinion) a more than troubling sensation of being both majorly distancing and distracting, and the namelessness of the main protagonist stops me from becoming in any way emotionally attached to either him or the events, the scenarios depicted. In fact, the narration style of The Quilt actually does even feel somewhat coldly chilling to and for me (and makes me wonder whether Gary Paulsen had during his sojourns with his grandmother also been simply referred to as "the boy" in truth, a tendency that I have always considered much problematic both in books and in real life, as it sure does seem to depersonalise children and makes them appear more as objects than as legitimate individually characterized people, entities to be ordered around, but not to be taken seriously).
And yes, I actually am so massively disconnected from especially the characters (and in particular the nameless "boy") that reading The Quilt kind of gives the rather weirdly strange sensation as though I am in a way perusing a children's version of Berthold Brecht (who deliberately makes his writing absurd, unemotional and impossible to internalise). However, while for Brecht (whose oeuvre is meant for adults and for thought, debate, discussion), this kind of disconnection is actually a necessary and an essential requirement, in The Quilt this kind of emotional distancing does not really make any type of sense at all, as immediacy and emotional attachment to the presented and depicted characters (and events) are actually or should really be both desired and demanded. For I feel absolutely nothing with regard to the boy's absent mother (and that his father is fighting in WWII), I feel no sense of excitement with regard to the young life about to be born and even the quilting stories essentially and frustratingly leave me both cold and majorly bored.
And I am thus never even remotely an active participant in the events presented and described, just an outsider looking in, massively feeling like someone reading a dry history textbook (or as mentioned above attending the theatre of the absurd). Therefore, one star is all that I can and will consider for Gary Paulsen's The Quilt (as from a narrative standpoint, it not only leaves everything to be desired, it is tedious, monotonous and in all ways not a reading pleasure, in fact, simply a major disappointment and a total waste of my reading time).
August 9, 2021
Thirteen years: that's the time frame in which Gary Paulsen published his Alida series. Long enough for a newborn babe to enter adolescence, or an elementary school kid to become an adult. Many who were young when The Cookcamp came out in 1991 had aged out of reading children's literature by the time Alida's Song debuted in 1999, and the same is again true for when The Quilt appeared on bookstore shelves in 2004. Yet I hope kids who loved The Cookcamp hung on to experience books two and three, for this trilogy is a wondrous take on life's complexity, how youth turns to old age and the people we love eventually pass on into that good night, leaving the legacy of how they equipped us to endure a life of more stress, hardship, and loss than a human heart seems capable of bearing. Would Gary Paulsen have survived to turn into the thoughtful, inspiring person he did without his grandmother, who pulled him back from the edge every time he came close to plunging off into the eternal abyss? The Quilt reinforces the message of the two previous books: Paulsen's grandmother saved him from a life cut short and devoid of purpose, one in which all the transformative books he has written would not have existed.
"Sometimes it is good to think of old things, old ways, and do the old stories when there is nothing to do but wait."
—A±ô¾±»å²¹, The Quilt, P. 57
The boy is six years old, but has already been through a lot. His father is fighting overseas in World War II, and his mother works long hours in a Chicago munitions factory. The boy spends his days in their apartment, often unsupervised, all of which is fine with him until his mother starts bringing home a young man to do things with her the boy's father would not approve of. Last summer the boy's mother sent him to stay with his grandmother, Alida, at her cookcamp in Minnesota, and this year she sends him again, to Alida's new home in a Minnesota town just south of Canada. He misses his parents and wishes the separation weren't necessary, but he loves Alida too. She would never bring home a young man and do disturbing things on the couch with him, or get drunk and ignore the boy. He settles into the rhythms of this small town, where farmland sprawls in every direction. The boy hasn't much to do but play outside all day, fantasizing he's a brave cowboy like Roy Rogers on the movie screen or an Allied soldier battling fascists in Europe, but his grandmother prepares wonderful meals and is more affectionate than his mother. Part of the boy wishes he could stay with Alida always.
Summer takes a turn with the arrival of Elmer, an elderly cousin whose broken-down truck somehow carries himself, the boy, and Alida seven miles through thick Minnesota woods to the small farm owned by Kristina. A friendly young woman whose husband is at war in Europe, Kristina is very much enceinte; her baby should be born within a few days. Alida and the boy are soon joined by several ladies who live in the area and are ready to put aside their own household affairs to help bring a child into this world. They won't leave until the job is done. The boy assists with milking the cows and other farm chores each day, awakening before dawn. He is amazed by the stamina of the ladies, who perform rigorous tasks as though they were nothing. Most if not all of them have no husband, and seem not to need one to keep up a farm. When they discuss the imminent childbirth, the ladies speak exclusively in Norwegian so they can converse without awkwardness around the boy, and he is almost surprised when Kristina's pains finally increase and she must be led to her bedroom for the ordeal ahead.
Kristina's primal screams work the boy's nerves to the point of snapping, but he's the only one who is bothered. Alida and the ladies take turns sitting with Kristina for hours that turn into days. The process is a mystery to the boy; he knows Kristina's baby is inside her, but how will it get out? What torture must she undergo before the wailing ends and the tension in the house can ease away? When not doing chores, the boy nervously plays outside with the dog, Jake, but his mind never drifts far from what's happening in the bedroom. He hears murmurs of "false labor" and wonders if Kristina's attendants will have to go home before the baby comes for real, but Alida isn't ready to give up. The signs are all there that the child should be here shortly.
After the boy hears the distinctive wail of a newborn, the ladies are as calm and collected as they have been all along, exiting the bedroom with so many blood-soaked cloths it seems to the boy that Kristina must be dead. Nauseated by the mess, he escapes outside to still his stomach, but obeys when Alida asks him to come visit Kristina and her son. Olaf, named for his soldier father, is so small the boy can hardly believe this is what Kristina had inside of her that made her look so huge. He views little Olaf with awe, questions swirling in his mind, but Alida gently ushers him out so mother and child can rest. Over the next weeks, Alida, the ladies, and the boy work hard to keep up the farm while Kristina recovers, a time the boy would always remember for the soft aura of contentment surrounding the healthy birth, but then the ladies pack up and head home. Kristina leaves the bed and does some work herself, and soon Elmer will show up in his truck and drive Alida and the boy back to town.
Chores still need doing, but the boy has plenty of time to himself. He thinks about his mother and emulates his father by playacting as a war hero scouring the countryside for enemy soldiers to take out. Before summer ends the boy will say goodbye to Alida and return to Chicago, where his mother will likely be no better prepared to take care of him than before, but he misses her nonetheless and looks forward to the reunion. No one is prepared for the wave of devastation poised to hit Kristina's homestead, dismantling the hope for a future with little Olaf and his father that kept Kristina going through the trials of labor. Death is a force of nature that destroys indiscriminately, tearing ragged wounds that never completely heal. It is the opposite side on the same coin as new life, and the boy will face both before leaving Kristina's farm. The weeks spent here will affect him for all his days to come.
No more powerful symbol appears in these pages than the ladies' quilt. A Norwegian tradition, the quilt was sewn together over many generations, an evolving memorial to loved ones who died. Plain squares of fabric cut from men's shirts, lacy patches from antique wedding dresses, all manner of material finds its way into the quilt, and a name is sewn into each square to identify the person the clothing belonged to. Drawing the boy's attention to a fragment of wedding dress stitched with the name "PEARL", Alida explains that Pearl and her husband, Sigurd, were unable to have children, so Pearl found another way to satisfy her maternal instinct. "They made a good farm with a hundred and sixty acres of homestead land six miles south of here and had cattle and hogs and very good corn, but without young what is the use of it?" Alida has more to say about Pearl. "But she was wise and knew that if she couldn't have one child, her own child, she could have all children and so she became mother to us all and in that time when things happened to us that we could not tell our own mothers we would talk to Pearl...And when at last we were all grown and Pearl was old there wasn't a young girl or woman here or anywhere else in this township who had not talked to Pearl and been told of helpful things by Pearl and so when she passed she did not have one child, she had many children." The ladies are reminded of their dear friend and mentor every time they see her patch.
Everyone's eyes are teary by the time Alida finishes this reminiscence. She points to a patch of wedding suit cloth embroidered with the name of Pearl's husband, Sigurd. He died at age fifty-two, she tells the boy, a loving, hardworking man that Pearl outlived by thirty years and missed every day for the rest of her life. Each patch memorializes a powerful, personal life story, the boy realizes, and how many of them ended before he was even born? "The boy looked at the patches of cloth differently now, all of them with names, and did not like himself, because he couldn't read and understand the names, and swore he would learn to read the best he could and know all the names and what they meant." Our own lives come in the wake of thousands of years of human history, packed with individual emotional odysseys we can scarcely imagine. We don't grasp the emotional import of even our own recent ancestors' lives if we never met them, yet who will keep their stories alive if we don't bother to learn who they were and plug ourselves into the emotional currents they felt so we can tell our children and grandchildren? We see a solution to this in what the boy does next: "He...went to the edge of the quilt and touched a piece of coarse wool sweater. In the middle it said KARL MATHISON and the boy whispered, 'Who is this one?'" Clearly moved by the question, Alida says he was her father, who died before the boy was born. "Can I know about him?" the boy asks. That's how you break the invisible barrier of the past, by reaching back into your heritage to grab hold the hand of a person you would have cherished with all your heart had the cruelty of mortality not taken them before you were born. To never know that person is tragic, but a trace of them remains in the memories of those who loved them, a trace we, too, can access if we ask the right questions and fully open our hearts for the response.
Calamities feel big when we're in the middle of them, maybe too big to handle. That's how the boy felt after his mother sent him away to Minnesota, and again while waiting for Kristina to give birth. When anxiety or suffering feels overwhelming and we think we'll never live to see "normal" again, how should we cope? The boy's grandmother gives insight in her answer to his question about if Kristina will survive childbirth. "This is the way it works, having babies. We heat water and drink coffee and there is noise and then it is over. You mustn't worry. She'll be fine." Calamity comes at us in a rush of noise and violence, but the thing to do is hunker down and survive the moment however you can, knowing it will be followed by another moment, and another and another until a semblance of normality is regained. You eventually weather the storm even if it felt like you never would. This is even true for the boy and the bombshell near the end of this book, as well as for the parental issues that will plague him through adolescence and beyond. Whatever happens, there always is a next chapter waiting for you to write, as long as you're still holding the pen.
My favorite Gary Paulsen books tend to be standalones, but the Alida series is some of his finest work. The Cookcamp and Alida's Song demonstrate that Paulsen's grandmother was indispensable was to him as a child. He couldn't count on his mother and father for much of anything, but Alida loved and sacrificed for him however she could, helping him learn to stand on his own feet and not become an emotional cripple. The Quilt enhances our perspective on the effect Alida had, contrasting the miracle of brand-new life with sober remembrance of loved ones gone too soon. In truth, they're always gone too soon; when are any of us ready to lose a person we love? The Quilt stirs up potent emotions while guiding us through important philosophical concepts, a combination that prompts me to rate it three and a half stars. I have great reverence for The Cookcamp and Alida's Song, but this might be the best of the trilogy, a book you could read a hundred times and never cease to grow wiser from. Gary Paulsen's memoir literature has done a lot to shape my emotional landscape, and I will love the Alida books until the day I die.
"Sometimes it is good to think of old things, old ways, and do the old stories when there is nothing to do but wait."
—A±ô¾±»å²¹, The Quilt, P. 57
The boy is six years old, but has already been through a lot. His father is fighting overseas in World War II, and his mother works long hours in a Chicago munitions factory. The boy spends his days in their apartment, often unsupervised, all of which is fine with him until his mother starts bringing home a young man to do things with her the boy's father would not approve of. Last summer the boy's mother sent him to stay with his grandmother, Alida, at her cookcamp in Minnesota, and this year she sends him again, to Alida's new home in a Minnesota town just south of Canada. He misses his parents and wishes the separation weren't necessary, but he loves Alida too. She would never bring home a young man and do disturbing things on the couch with him, or get drunk and ignore the boy. He settles into the rhythms of this small town, where farmland sprawls in every direction. The boy hasn't much to do but play outside all day, fantasizing he's a brave cowboy like Roy Rogers on the movie screen or an Allied soldier battling fascists in Europe, but his grandmother prepares wonderful meals and is more affectionate than his mother. Part of the boy wishes he could stay with Alida always.
Summer takes a turn with the arrival of Elmer, an elderly cousin whose broken-down truck somehow carries himself, the boy, and Alida seven miles through thick Minnesota woods to the small farm owned by Kristina. A friendly young woman whose husband is at war in Europe, Kristina is very much enceinte; her baby should be born within a few days. Alida and the boy are soon joined by several ladies who live in the area and are ready to put aside their own household affairs to help bring a child into this world. They won't leave until the job is done. The boy assists with milking the cows and other farm chores each day, awakening before dawn. He is amazed by the stamina of the ladies, who perform rigorous tasks as though they were nothing. Most if not all of them have no husband, and seem not to need one to keep up a farm. When they discuss the imminent childbirth, the ladies speak exclusively in Norwegian so they can converse without awkwardness around the boy, and he is almost surprised when Kristina's pains finally increase and she must be led to her bedroom for the ordeal ahead.
Kristina's primal screams work the boy's nerves to the point of snapping, but he's the only one who is bothered. Alida and the ladies take turns sitting with Kristina for hours that turn into days. The process is a mystery to the boy; he knows Kristina's baby is inside her, but how will it get out? What torture must she undergo before the wailing ends and the tension in the house can ease away? When not doing chores, the boy nervously plays outside with the dog, Jake, but his mind never drifts far from what's happening in the bedroom. He hears murmurs of "false labor" and wonders if Kristina's attendants will have to go home before the baby comes for real, but Alida isn't ready to give up. The signs are all there that the child should be here shortly.
After the boy hears the distinctive wail of a newborn, the ladies are as calm and collected as they have been all along, exiting the bedroom with so many blood-soaked cloths it seems to the boy that Kristina must be dead. Nauseated by the mess, he escapes outside to still his stomach, but obeys when Alida asks him to come visit Kristina and her son. Olaf, named for his soldier father, is so small the boy can hardly believe this is what Kristina had inside of her that made her look so huge. He views little Olaf with awe, questions swirling in his mind, but Alida gently ushers him out so mother and child can rest. Over the next weeks, Alida, the ladies, and the boy work hard to keep up the farm while Kristina recovers, a time the boy would always remember for the soft aura of contentment surrounding the healthy birth, but then the ladies pack up and head home. Kristina leaves the bed and does some work herself, and soon Elmer will show up in his truck and drive Alida and the boy back to town.
Chores still need doing, but the boy has plenty of time to himself. He thinks about his mother and emulates his father by playacting as a war hero scouring the countryside for enemy soldiers to take out. Before summer ends the boy will say goodbye to Alida and return to Chicago, where his mother will likely be no better prepared to take care of him than before, but he misses her nonetheless and looks forward to the reunion. No one is prepared for the wave of devastation poised to hit Kristina's homestead, dismantling the hope for a future with little Olaf and his father that kept Kristina going through the trials of labor. Death is a force of nature that destroys indiscriminately, tearing ragged wounds that never completely heal. It is the opposite side on the same coin as new life, and the boy will face both before leaving Kristina's farm. The weeks spent here will affect him for all his days to come.
No more powerful symbol appears in these pages than the ladies' quilt. A Norwegian tradition, the quilt was sewn together over many generations, an evolving memorial to loved ones who died. Plain squares of fabric cut from men's shirts, lacy patches from antique wedding dresses, all manner of material finds its way into the quilt, and a name is sewn into each square to identify the person the clothing belonged to. Drawing the boy's attention to a fragment of wedding dress stitched with the name "PEARL", Alida explains that Pearl and her husband, Sigurd, were unable to have children, so Pearl found another way to satisfy her maternal instinct. "They made a good farm with a hundred and sixty acres of homestead land six miles south of here and had cattle and hogs and very good corn, but without young what is the use of it?" Alida has more to say about Pearl. "But she was wise and knew that if she couldn't have one child, her own child, she could have all children and so she became mother to us all and in that time when things happened to us that we could not tell our own mothers we would talk to Pearl...And when at last we were all grown and Pearl was old there wasn't a young girl or woman here or anywhere else in this township who had not talked to Pearl and been told of helpful things by Pearl and so when she passed she did not have one child, she had many children." The ladies are reminded of their dear friend and mentor every time they see her patch.
Everyone's eyes are teary by the time Alida finishes this reminiscence. She points to a patch of wedding suit cloth embroidered with the name of Pearl's husband, Sigurd. He died at age fifty-two, she tells the boy, a loving, hardworking man that Pearl outlived by thirty years and missed every day for the rest of her life. Each patch memorializes a powerful, personal life story, the boy realizes, and how many of them ended before he was even born? "The boy looked at the patches of cloth differently now, all of them with names, and did not like himself, because he couldn't read and understand the names, and swore he would learn to read the best he could and know all the names and what they meant." Our own lives come in the wake of thousands of years of human history, packed with individual emotional odysseys we can scarcely imagine. We don't grasp the emotional import of even our own recent ancestors' lives if we never met them, yet who will keep their stories alive if we don't bother to learn who they were and plug ourselves into the emotional currents they felt so we can tell our children and grandchildren? We see a solution to this in what the boy does next: "He...went to the edge of the quilt and touched a piece of coarse wool sweater. In the middle it said KARL MATHISON and the boy whispered, 'Who is this one?'" Clearly moved by the question, Alida says he was her father, who died before the boy was born. "Can I know about him?" the boy asks. That's how you break the invisible barrier of the past, by reaching back into your heritage to grab hold the hand of a person you would have cherished with all your heart had the cruelty of mortality not taken them before you were born. To never know that person is tragic, but a trace of them remains in the memories of those who loved them, a trace we, too, can access if we ask the right questions and fully open our hearts for the response.
Calamities feel big when we're in the middle of them, maybe too big to handle. That's how the boy felt after his mother sent him away to Minnesota, and again while waiting for Kristina to give birth. When anxiety or suffering feels overwhelming and we think we'll never live to see "normal" again, how should we cope? The boy's grandmother gives insight in her answer to his question about if Kristina will survive childbirth. "This is the way it works, having babies. We heat water and drink coffee and there is noise and then it is over. You mustn't worry. She'll be fine." Calamity comes at us in a rush of noise and violence, but the thing to do is hunker down and survive the moment however you can, knowing it will be followed by another moment, and another and another until a semblance of normality is regained. You eventually weather the storm even if it felt like you never would. This is even true for the boy and the bombshell near the end of this book, as well as for the parental issues that will plague him through adolescence and beyond. Whatever happens, there always is a next chapter waiting for you to write, as long as you're still holding the pen.
My favorite Gary Paulsen books tend to be standalones, but the Alida series is some of his finest work. The Cookcamp and Alida's Song demonstrate that Paulsen's grandmother was indispensable was to him as a child. He couldn't count on his mother and father for much of anything, but Alida loved and sacrificed for him however she could, helping him learn to stand on his own feet and not become an emotional cripple. The Quilt enhances our perspective on the effect Alida had, contrasting the miracle of brand-new life with sober remembrance of loved ones gone too soon. In truth, they're always gone too soon; when are any of us ready to lose a person we love? The Quilt stirs up potent emotions while guiding us through important philosophical concepts, a combination that prompts me to rate it three and a half stars. I have great reverence for The Cookcamp and Alida's Song, but this might be the best of the trilogy, a book you could read a hundred times and never cease to grow wiser from. Gary Paulsen's memoir literature has done a lot to shape my emotional landscape, and I will love the Alida books until the day I die.
May 11, 2017
This was lovely and had me in tears by the end.
Gary Paulsen has painful memories of his mother but some wonderful memories of his grandmother, Alida. He spent summers with Alida and one summer, as a six-year-old boy, was particularly memorable. Alida and young Gary are driven on an old, lumbering truck to cousin Kristina’s home to be with her as she is expecting. The boy learned of all the fun animals on a farm along with all the chores even a young boy can help with. But he learned something even more important about people� about the community of family.
The men are all away at war so the women are about the business of taking care of the farms. Kristina works up to the day she goes into labor. Young Gary tries to figure out what is going on but the kitchen full of women shoo him aside. And when he hears the cries of labor he runs out the door.
But Gary is blessed to be allowed to sit in the circle around the community quilt. There he learns the special history of the quilt as the ladies tell stories of their family members who are no longer there.
The story was simple in its presentation but deeply moving in emotional impact. I had never read Gary Paulsen so I did not pick this up because of the author. I thought it sounded interesting. As it started I wasn’t immediately pulled in but then I began to be interested in the historical elements. Then it moved into the emotional aspects and I was punched in the gut with the beauty of the precious memories shared. This may be written for young people but it is a gem for adults too.
Audio Notes: Susan Ericksen is a wonderful narrator and I recognized her voice immediately as the voice of JD Robb’s In Death series. I had to adjust my listening to her narration of this totally different work. I loved how she does grandmother’s Norwegian accent, adding the extra touch to the narration. I am very glad I got this on audio.
Gary Paulsen has painful memories of his mother but some wonderful memories of his grandmother, Alida. He spent summers with Alida and one summer, as a six-year-old boy, was particularly memorable. Alida and young Gary are driven on an old, lumbering truck to cousin Kristina’s home to be with her as she is expecting. The boy learned of all the fun animals on a farm along with all the chores even a young boy can help with. But he learned something even more important about people� about the community of family.
The men are all away at war so the women are about the business of taking care of the farms. Kristina works up to the day she goes into labor. Young Gary tries to figure out what is going on but the kitchen full of women shoo him aside. And when he hears the cries of labor he runs out the door.
But Gary is blessed to be allowed to sit in the circle around the community quilt. There he learns the special history of the quilt as the ladies tell stories of their family members who are no longer there.
The story was simple in its presentation but deeply moving in emotional impact. I had never read Gary Paulsen so I did not pick this up because of the author. I thought it sounded interesting. As it started I wasn’t immediately pulled in but then I began to be interested in the historical elements. Then it moved into the emotional aspects and I was punched in the gut with the beauty of the precious memories shared. This may be written for young people but it is a gem for adults too.
Audio Notes: Susan Ericksen is a wonderful narrator and I recognized her voice immediately as the voice of JD Robb’s In Death series. I had to adjust my listening to her narration of this totally different work. I loved how she does grandmother’s Norwegian accent, adding the extra touch to the narration. I am very glad I got this on audio.
March 1, 2009
After reading Yellow Star (which was a great insight on the holocaust by the way) I found this book very dissapointing. Although the author was in the war at the time I didn't find it real enough for me. I think he was a bit to young to comprehend what the 'war' was as a 6-year-old. This was an easy read only about 80 pages and It would have been better with more detail. Another down point of the book was that it took 1/2 of it to get anywhere. Unfortunately i was a bit dissapointed in this read.
June 1, 2018
During WWII, the boy is staying with his grandmother again when word comes via the party line telephone that Alida is needed on one of the outlying farms. The woman running the place alone (because her husband is fighting in the war) is about to go into labor. Naming cows and speaking Norwegian. Fresh bread and rationing gasoline. Rural isolation and rallying together. Little pitchers and big ears. Bitter coffee and the strength of women.
Paulsen has set birth alongside death in a way that carries a lot of emotional weight. The War is so distant, but its consequences are intensely personal. The quilt refers to a memorial quilt that the women of the community add to each time someone dies. Whenever they gather together (like for births and deaths) they bring out the quilt and tell the stories of the people whose names are sewn there.
The boy finds the mysteries of childbirth unsettling, and the women's gossip mostly goes over his head (and probably won't make sense to young readers either). Fair warning: swearing and allusions to sex. Of the three books in the Alida trilogy, Alida's Song is my favorite, simply because it's the gentlest. The Quilt is good, but hard. It stands as a tribute to the strength of the women who had to keep everything together while their men went off to fight and die.
Paulsen has set birth alongside death in a way that carries a lot of emotional weight. The War is so distant, but its consequences are intensely personal. The quilt refers to a memorial quilt that the women of the community add to each time someone dies. Whenever they gather together (like for births and deaths) they bring out the quilt and tell the stories of the people whose names are sewn there.
The boy finds the mysteries of childbirth unsettling, and the women's gossip mostly goes over his head (and probably won't make sense to young readers either). Fair warning: swearing and allusions to sex. Of the three books in the Alida trilogy, Alida's Song is my favorite, simply because it's the gentlest. The Quilt is good, but hard. It stands as a tribute to the strength of the women who had to keep everything together while their men went off to fight and die.
June 30, 2017
Such a touching story - but entirely too short!
April 24, 2014
The book was well written but I found the fact that "the boy" has no name distracting and annoying. A child at that age is the centre of his or her own universe, everything references to them, and yet he has no name, no identity? I hardly think so. At that age, many children make names for themselves if they don't like the one they were given (I know this from experience). Yes, he pretends to be Roy Rogers, but he has no name for himself? Not even calling himself "Roy"?
The vibe I picked up was, curiously, one of anger and resentment--on the part of the author, not his characters. "The boy" is curiously passive, probably because there's really not much detail about his actions beyond "playing all day" (in so few words) and falling asleep. At that age, children live a rich imaginative life, and yet this boy is almost background. The only thing he seems to think about is that men are useless, men are ineffective, men are not there. Curious coming from a male author.
I don't know. I just didn't enjoy it much. I felt there could have been much more. Was the "quilt" ever actually finished?
Dissatisfying, like the last slice of bread in the breadbin. Where's the rest of it?
The vibe I picked up was, curiously, one of anger and resentment--on the part of the author, not his characters. "The boy" is curiously passive, probably because there's really not much detail about his actions beyond "playing all day" (in so few words) and falling asleep. At that age, children live a rich imaginative life, and yet this boy is almost background. The only thing he seems to think about is that men are useless, men are ineffective, men are not there. Curious coming from a male author.
I don't know. I just didn't enjoy it much. I felt there could have been much more. Was the "quilt" ever actually finished?
Dissatisfying, like the last slice of bread in the breadbin. Where's the rest of it?
April 21, 2021
In this third installment, the story goes back to a time when the boy was six. He goes to spend the summer with his grandmother in northern Minnesota. It isn't long until she receives a call from an expectant mother who needs help on the farm. The boy and grandmother soon arrive where he meets farm animals galore. His grandmother calls in other women. He hears a very scary sound as the birth pangs begin. As the women sit in the kitchen, they bring out a quilt and share stories of those who passed. Before the story ends, the women will need to sew another square on the quilt. It's a touching story--a tribute to the author's own grandmother.
March 24, 2015
What a beautiful story! I have fallen for Paulsen's writing. It's simple and poetic and full of heart, written for both children and adults. This is a boy's story of being raised by his grandmother and aunts, of living on and working a small Minnesota farm, and of the hardships of wartime. I loved The Quilt - savored every word. I've already chosen a few more of Paulsen's books and am excited to begin reading them.
March 6, 2010
I couldn't quite figure out who this book was for. It was quite a short book and written from the perspective of a six year old, yet it dealt with some mature topics (his mother's "men" and childbirth). I guess it could be interesting from an autobiographical perspective, but it didn't really work for me.
September 20, 2009
This was different from the Paulsen I remembered, The Hatchet. It's a nice little memoir of his experience at his Grandma's as a child. If you want to understand Paulsen's life a little bit better, you can read the trilogy he writes about his experiences at Alida's Wisconsin farm.
July 25, 2011
I don't have much to say about this other than it was entirely forgettable. Paulsen's style, which was intriguing in The Hatchet, seemed overly dramatic for this book. And maybe just a tad annoying. I'll wait until I hear a book is fabulous before trying another one by Paulsen.
March 28, 2024
My grandson is a huge Gary Paulsen fan and I'm a quilter so naturally, I bought this book.
This week he and I were both reading a different Paulsen novel. I don't like to get too far ahead of him so I read this to slow myself down.
It's beautiful and uplifting but also sad and tragic.
This week he and I were both reading a different Paulsen novel. I don't like to get too far ahead of him so I read this to slow myself down.
It's beautiful and uplifting but also sad and tragic.
July 25, 2011
Took a while to get into. Didn't have very many interesting parts. Not a very good ending.
July 14, 2016
The last book in this short, sweet trilogy written by Gary Paulsen about his grandmother. Very poignant stories and memories!
February 1, 2018
SPOILER ALERT
This book is called "The Quilt", by Gary Paulsen. The genre of this book is fiction. This book was about love. It introduced the theme in many places: Mothers and their children, Husbands and their wives, even a boy and his dog.
At the beginning of the book, a boy has just went to live with his grandmother. His mother is unstable and his father is off in the war. He enjoys staying with his grandmother although sometimes he misses his mother. They get called to go help a lady named Kristina and the boy likes to help her. Kristina is heavily pregnant so she needs help working on the farm while her husband, Olaf, is away at war. In the middle of the book, Kristina starts to have her bay and the boy hears all these awful noises coming from the upstairs bedroom. He likes to stay outside an play with Jake, the dog, and play robbers and cowboys with the chickens and cats. All these women start coming to help with the baby that's on its way. Right before Kristina has her baby, the ladies pull out a quilt that has all these people's names on it. The women tell him stories of all the people, who have all passed away, as his grandmother explains. At the end of the book, Kristina finally has her baby and names him Olaf after his father and grandfather. They get right back to chores almost immediately afterwards. A few weeks later, two men pull up in a long black car and they have o tell Kristina that her husband has passed from the war. She is so upset by this that she cant even function for the rest of the day. Even the boys grandmother starts crying. I feel that at least everyone can make the connection of losing someone to this book.
I think that this book was ok. There could have been more detail overall. hat is why I gave this book 3 starts. It also jumps around a lot. The author is a very talented writer but he needs to keep all of his ideas together.
This book is called "The Quilt", by Gary Paulsen. The genre of this book is fiction. This book was about love. It introduced the theme in many places: Mothers and their children, Husbands and their wives, even a boy and his dog.
At the beginning of the book, a boy has just went to live with his grandmother. His mother is unstable and his father is off in the war. He enjoys staying with his grandmother although sometimes he misses his mother. They get called to go help a lady named Kristina and the boy likes to help her. Kristina is heavily pregnant so she needs help working on the farm while her husband, Olaf, is away at war. In the middle of the book, Kristina starts to have her bay and the boy hears all these awful noises coming from the upstairs bedroom. He likes to stay outside an play with Jake, the dog, and play robbers and cowboys with the chickens and cats. All these women start coming to help with the baby that's on its way. Right before Kristina has her baby, the ladies pull out a quilt that has all these people's names on it. The women tell him stories of all the people, who have all passed away, as his grandmother explains. At the end of the book, Kristina finally has her baby and names him Olaf after his father and grandfather. They get right back to chores almost immediately afterwards. A few weeks later, two men pull up in a long black car and they have o tell Kristina that her husband has passed from the war. She is so upset by this that she cant even function for the rest of the day. Even the boys grandmother starts crying. I feel that at least everyone can make the connection of losing someone to this book.
I think that this book was ok. There could have been more detail overall. hat is why I gave this book 3 starts. It also jumps around a lot. The author is a very talented writer but he needs to keep all of his ideas together.
December 20, 2017
A six-year-old boy has to go spend the summer with his grandmother, Alida because his mom was too busy to take care of him and his father was in the war. Grandmother Alida lives in a Minnesota town. All the men are off fighting in the war so it’s left for the women to do the chores. The boy is supposed to be helping out but all day the boy just played outside and listened to his grandmother’s stories. One day Alida and the boy had to travel to his cousin, Kristina’s, farm to help the farm because she was in labor. The boy was very excited to go to the farm because he experienced life in a city (Chicago) because his mother lives in an apartment there and he has also experience living in an apartment in Minnesota because his grandmother doesn’t live on a farm but she doesn't have a yard. He was very curious about what it was going to be like. They lived 7 miles apart so they needed someone to drive them. Grandmother knew a close friend and that friend was the only person that owned a vehicle in this town but the vehicle was very old so it didn’t work well. When they arrived they ate bread that Kristina had just made. She couldn’t do much work so she needed help and that’s why she called Alida. This was the boy’s first time doing chores. Before the baby was born, they built a quilt for the baby. Women from the town came over to Kristina’s house to work on the quilt every day. Her house was filled with women. They built the quilt out of the boy’s story. As they build it, they share the stories with the boy. Do you think the boy’s dad and Kristina’s husband will survive the war and do you think the boy will reconnect with his parents again?
I think the author is trying to entertain/inform the reader because she entertains us by giving us a story about a boy’s life during the war and the author also informs us with a little bit of information about the war and the U.S. during the time.
I think the author is trying to entertain/inform the reader because she entertains us by giving us a story about a boy’s life during the war and the author also informs us with a little bit of information about the war and the U.S. during the time.
May 19, 2023
This story and its companion read "Alida's Song" are believed to be autobiographical accounts of Paulsen's experiences on the farm with his kind-hearted grandma during a few select summers of his life. As other reviewers have noted, Paulsen never gives himself a name in these stories, he is just always referred to as "the boy". I suspect the namelessness represents the insignificance the author felt as he was growing up with his parents, who were alcoholics.
In this story Paulsen is only 6 years old and brought to his grandma's farm because his father is overseas fighting in the war and his mother is working at a munitions factory. With the men away, young Paulsen witnesses the strength, independence and resilience of the women of the community. During his stay he is present in the home when his older cousin goes into labor and gives birth. Being so young, himself, the experience brings with it confusion, fearfulness and wonder.
While they wait for the babe to be born, Paulsen becomes a part of the traditions of his family's Norwegian culture which involves a community quilt and the addition of a quilt square for the baby. Each piece of the quilt comes with a story about his family which offers some entertaining family history to young Paulsen. The experience also offers a sense of pride and belonging for "the boy".
Paulsen's writing is vivid and welcoming and you feel like you are there with them sewing that quilt and cringing every time the cousin screams in pain from her labor.
In this story Paulsen is only 6 years old and brought to his grandma's farm because his father is overseas fighting in the war and his mother is working at a munitions factory. With the men away, young Paulsen witnesses the strength, independence and resilience of the women of the community. During his stay he is present in the home when his older cousin goes into labor and gives birth. Being so young, himself, the experience brings with it confusion, fearfulness and wonder.
While they wait for the babe to be born, Paulsen becomes a part of the traditions of his family's Norwegian culture which involves a community quilt and the addition of a quilt square for the baby. Each piece of the quilt comes with a story about his family which offers some entertaining family history to young Paulsen. The experience also offers a sense of pride and belonging for "the boy".
Paulsen's writing is vivid and welcoming and you feel like you are there with them sewing that quilt and cringing every time the cousin screams in pain from her labor.
January 19, 2022
This was so odd because for some reason I thought Gary Paulsen hadn't written anything but . Anyway.
Listened to the audiobook, and I've just got to say, the reader was wonderful. Absolutely spectacular. This story is fairly short and limited in scope, but she brought it to life.
By referring to himself as "the boy" throughout the story, Paulsen gives this autobiographical tale a nostalgic air. I felt him looking back as I listened. Despite the young age of the boy in the story, Paulsen doesn't spare us any details of his memories, and I found some of that difficult to listen to. Perhaps I have certain sensitivities that you wouldn't. Most of the book, however, focuses on a grandparent's love; a child's need to grow in a safe space; and the lingering traditions that an immigrant community holds to for the sake of their own identity. The quilt itself is truly a beautiful and magical item, as Paulsen depicts it, and I hope it lives on.
Listened to the audiobook, and I've just got to say, the reader was wonderful. Absolutely spectacular. This story is fairly short and limited in scope, but she brought it to life.
By referring to himself as "the boy" throughout the story, Paulsen gives this autobiographical tale a nostalgic air. I felt him looking back as I listened. Despite the young age of the boy in the story, Paulsen doesn't spare us any details of his memories, and I found some of that difficult to listen to. Perhaps I have certain sensitivities that you wouldn't. Most of the book, however, focuses on a grandparent's love; a child's need to grow in a safe space; and the lingering traditions that an immigrant community holds to for the sake of their own identity. The quilt itself is truly a beautiful and magical item, as Paulsen depicts it, and I hope it lives on.
January 29, 2021
This was a tender story told from the viewpoint of a 6 year old boy in the 1940s in northern Minnesota. It is based loosely on a time in Gary Paulsen's childhood with his grandmother visiting a young mother/friend that is about to give birth on a remote farm. The emotions of this tale wrap around the reader like a warm loving quilt, as the women come together as a tight community to help the to-be mother and affirm the connection to each other. There is a quilt in the story, that chronicles the lives of those who came before, a strip of fabric, each with it's own story and remembrance of the one who wore the piece, adding to the collective. It is brought out ceremonially one evening to share the memories together. I love this story- simple and powerful, very visual and emotive.
June 17, 2021
While I’m not really sure who decided this was very appropriate for children or exactly why I read it aloud to my 6 & 9 yr olds, it was lovely. So lovely. We’ve read a lot of Gary Paulsen to the boys and thought this was such a tangent for him, I couldn’t leave it at the library. I was right - such a unique look at the strong women in his youth who cared for and shaped him. I had to edit out quit a bit about making & having babies and some strong language in times of hardship, but it was a perfect story for me as a mother and as someone who feels a strong connection to those who’ve gone on before. Simple, well-written, short and affecting. Beautiful book.
October 22, 2022
Probably 3.5 stars. A year after the events in , the boy is once again staying with his grandmother, but this time out in the country on her farm. But then they go to help a young neighbor woman who is pregnant, and whose husband is away at war. As the women in the neighborhood gather together, they bring out a quilt, made of pieces from garments belonging to friends and relatives who have passed away, and tell their stories. A sometimes sad, sometimes sweet story.
May 18, 2018
This short novel is an autobiographical tribute to his grandmother. It tells the story set in WWII of when at the age of six, he lived with his grandmother and they went to help a relative when she was ready to have a baby. The boy learns of this family of women who are strong, determined and carry on in a time of war. He learns of his family and the women who survived from the stories of the memory quilt they've made from pieces of clothes of the dead. The story is beautiful, and while the boy is passive throughout, his growth from watching life, new life, and death helps shape his future.
February 24, 2022
Sometimes everyone needs a simply sweet story to read to make you realize how very special life can be. In this short novel, Gary Paulson writes a tale that highlights a summer in the life of a boy during WWII. The boy’s Grandma Alida and the women in his small country community gathered together at the birth of a child and revealed to him the love and history woven together in a family quilt. It is hard to read this short novel without a few tears falling and wishing for a world where communities come together to help each other out.
January 8, 2018
Beautiful, quiet story about boyhood in a hard time with non-traditional family arrangements. A tender real account from Paulsen about his childhood. There are some lines toward the end that, given in a very emotional situation, are a reflection of the turmoil of the times and the frustration of a generation of women left to "always go on." It is my belief that these lines should be taken as such rather than an attack on men in general. The story was quite beautiful.
February 18, 2018
I had no idea what to expect of this book as I randomly came across it. All I knew was that Paulsen had written "Hatchet", a book that I had read & loved as a kid.
I was really moved by this book and found it both heartbreaking and encouraging by turns. Paulsen's succinct retelling of this period of his childhood was surprisingly emotive. I think that the idea behind the quilt was beautiful and a great way of coming together as a community.
It's a quick read and one I recommend.
I was really moved by this book and found it both heartbreaking and encouraging by turns. Paulsen's succinct retelling of this period of his childhood was surprisingly emotive. I think that the idea behind the quilt was beautiful and a great way of coming together as a community.
It's a quick read and one I recommend.
September 29, 2019
Please read the foreword and sit with it a minute before beginning this book. Learning about the author’s background gives me a much greater appreciation for his talent.
The Quilt is set during WWII in a close-knit rural Norwegian community near the Canadian border and features the relationship between Paulsen and his grandmother as the central theme. It is about much more than a quilt, but as a quilter myself, that is what initially drew me to the book.
The Quilt is set during WWII in a close-knit rural Norwegian community near the Canadian border and features the relationship between Paulsen and his grandmother as the central theme. It is about much more than a quilt, but as a quilter myself, that is what initially drew me to the book.
December 12, 2019
I really enjoyed this book. It is told through a child’s eyes and was reminiscent of the book Once in that regard. I am a quilter and was surprised to see a book with this title by Gary Paulsen. I liked the idea of a community memory quilt where each square bears the name of the person and is made from some personal fabric (like a wedding dress or sweater). I liked the way the women supported each other during pregnancy and delivery and wartime.
March 6, 2022
The book is based on the author's memory of when he was six and lived with his grandmother. In the book he refers to himself as The Boy.The quilt that is brought out has a square for people in the family and their story is passed down though the ages. It is a testament to strong women and how they work together to when times are tough. The Boy's grandmother says, "We are the strong ones,we have always been the strong ones." A lovely quiet book with real truth contained in this short book.
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