Sam Johnson and the Blue Ribbon Quilt

In this picture book, Sam Johnson discovers a love of quilting while his wife is away and the awning breaks. When he tries to join the women's quilting club, he is laughed away. So, he starts his own quilting circle. The men's club builds a quilt to compete with the women's at the county fair. The competition is fierce; who will win?

The drawings are beautiful and color is used to display simplicity and an element of country elegance.

I intend to use this text as part of a unit that combines geometry (the symmetry of quilting patterns), and the historical significance of quilts in slaves' escape to freedom through the Underground Railroad. I will start this unit with second graders with this book because I need to get boys to buy into the idea of quilting. Otherwise, they will not want to join in with our final activity, building a quilt using geometric patterns.

Reference:

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