Luka's quilt is a detailed story that takes place in Hawaii. The story follows Luka and her grandmother's relationship as they struggle to agree upon what to include in Luka's traditional Hawaiian quilt. Luka becomes angry with her grandmother as she chooses not to include all of the colorful flowers in the quilt that she had hoped for. Because of this the relationship become torn between the contemporary and the traditional. This is a great story to teach young students what tradition means and discover if their families have any traditional values. Also, Luka's quilt focuses on a Hawaiian tradition which is rarely taught in schools. It is a great way to incorporate multicultural points of view within the classroom.The moral of this story is great, but in critique the story just seems to be lacking something. It is extremely straight forward and doesn't leave much for the reader to decide upon themselves. There tone is as if you were reading Luka's memoir or journal. Although this is not a bad tone for storytelling, it does not reach the level that most students can connect with. The style of the book is very plain despite the magnificent artwork, by author and artist Georgia Gubeck. I was left looking for a little more after finishing the story.
The cover look interesting. I like that she used something that you traditionally see children do (paper snowflakes) and turned it into something very artistic.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate that you didn't shy away from giving a review from all angles about this book. It seems like a great book though to introduce Hawaiian tradition, which as you said is pretty much not addressed in schools. This seems like a great book to read when doing a social studies or map skills lesson about the 50 states to bring Hawaii a little closer to home.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great critique of this book; I still want to read it. It sounds like a great way to address multiculturalism in the classroom! What age do you think this would be appropriate for?
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