Name of Book: The Quiltmaker’s Gift

Author: Jeff Brumbeau

Illustrator:  Gail de Marcken

Publisher: Orchard Books

Audience: Ages 7 – 10

Summary: An old quiltmaker lives in the mountains sewed beautiful quilts day after day. Many people try in vain to buy her quilts but the quiltmaker will not sell them.  At night she goes down into the town and gives each one away to someone in need.  A rich and powerful king demands one of her quilts and tries to hold the quiltmaker prisoner.  She tells him she will only give him one if he will give away all of his treasures.  He finally does and receives a beautiful quilt and becomes the giver of quilts.

Literary elements at work in the story:  The plot of this story is a key literary element.  Throughout the book, the words and illustrations convey to the reader what it means to give to others without expecting anything in return.  The plot also illustrates the fact that material things do not bring true happiness.

Perspective on gender/race/culture/economic ability:  The perspective on economic ability is highlighted in this story through the illustrations.  The detailed pictures give the reader an accurate picture of those that are rich and those that are poor.  The reader can see the visible differences between these two vastly different economic groups that are present in our society today.

Scripture: James 1:17, Psalm 41:1, 2 Corinthians 9:13

Theology:  Generous acts of giving come from God above.  True happiness happens when you turn yourself towards God’s will.  One way of doing this is to care for the poor and those in need.  The generosity of sharing with others glorifies God.

Faith Talk Questions:

1. Why does the quiltmaker sew all the time?
2. What kind of a person is the king at the beginning of the story?
3. Why do you think the bear and the sparrows are kind to the quiltmaker?
4. Why does the quiltmaker give her gifts away at night?
5. Why do you think the king has so many treasures?
6. What does the king mean near the end of the story when he says that he may look poor but is not?
7. What message do the double pages of illustrations that show the king traveling around the world give to the reader?

The Quiltmaker’s Gift by Storypath is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.