Whispering Cloth: A Refugees Story
Written by: Pegi Deitz Shea
Pegi Deitz Shea (Author)
Illustrated by: Anita Riggio and You Yang
Elementary Grades
"Set in a refugee camp in Thailand, this picture book about a small Hmong child quietly tells a story of terror. As they wait in the camp, Grandmother teaches Mai to stitch traditional pa'ndau story cloths. First Mai sews only the borders, but then she stitches her own story, filling the cloth with pictures that show the murder of her parents and her escape under fire in a basket on Grandmother's back. Soft-toned watercolor and gouache illustrations set the story in the present; then reproductions of the real stitched story cloths by Hmong refugee You Yang show the child's war experiences. The stitched pictures in folk-art style distance the brutality, both showing and telling that art can be a powerful force. The final pa'ndau of Mai flying with her grandmother in an airplane to a land of comfort and safety is a moving representation of the dreams of refugees everywhere."
Booklist Review
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