Module 10: Show Way

 

Woodson, J., & Talbott, H. (2005). Show way. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.

Summary: The story follows the lineage through the women in the family of the author who are bought and sold into slavery but who continue to pass down the craft of memory, storytelling and the path to freedom through their quilting techniques. Though the passage through time diminishes the need for freedom pathways, the historical importance and family heritage is maintained.

Response: I found this book to be extremely powerful and moving. I felt that it really resonated with me because the author is the great-granddaughter of the great-granddaughter first depicted in the story. Though some specifics about the family history is lost along the way, the importance of family history and cultural preservation are maintained. It is the story of survival and of understanding of the struggles that came before us and the hopes for future generations. I really enjoyed the mixed media artwork of the book, especially the pages with fabric or thread depicted and thought that it added another dimension to the story. The fabric is unraveled by families being ripped apart and is constantly sewn back together to maintain what history, story and possibility of survival that is left.

Reviews:

 Show Way

JACQUELINE WOODSON, ILLUS. BY HUDSON TALBOTT.

Putnam

This affecting, poetic paper-over-board picture book stands out from the first glance. On the innovative cover, a montage of black-and-white pictures of African-American captives, arranged to resemble a quilt, act as a background to a diamond-shaped die-cut opening that frames the image of an African-American girl holding a lighted candle. Woodson's (Coming on Home Soon) story, both historical and deeply personal, begins as a seven-year-old girl is sold into slavery and taken to a South Carolina plantation "without her ma or pa but with some muslin her ma had given her." There she learns to "sew colored thread into stars and moons and roads that slave children grew up and followed late in the night, a piece of quilt and the true moon leading them." Later, her daughter also stitches quilts that become "a Show Way" to guide captives escaping to freedom. The quilt becomes a metaphor not only for physical freedom but for freedom of expression. Long after emancipation, subsequent generations of women in this family stay connected through quilting, using needle and thread as a means of support and as a creative outlet. Woodson eventually reveals that this is her own lineage, and "[her] words became books that told the stories of many people's Show Ways." Talbott uses the quilt motif in rousing ways, piecing together quotes or news items for a pair of spreads about one generation "walking in a line to change the laws" as well as in softly quilted patterns that tie together the love of a child, a theme throughout this elegantly designed volume. Ages 5-up. (Sept.)

Show Way. (2005). Publishers Weekly, 252(36), 67.

Program: Have a craft activity of creating a quilting square depicting important family information such as lineage and ancestry, cultural contributions, directions or memories. Provides colorful thread, scraps and shapes for cutouts.