The Mountains of Quilt, a laugh out loud funny bedtime story by Nancy Willard, illustrated by Tomie dePaola.
Written by Nancy Willard, illustrated by Tomie dePaola. 1987, stated first edition. Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, publishers.
Kirkus Review called it "A fey literary tale in the spirit of Sandburg or Thurber." Publisher's Weekly recommended The Mountains of Quilt as "Wonderful for reading aloud". I'd add it's also wonderful for being laugh out loud funny, told as a child might weave an elaborate story about a day's play.
"Once upon a time, on a Tuesday, the magpie flew over my grandmother's clothesline, where she had just hung a magnificent quilt: red as embers, green as ferns, with a border of silver and gold stars on sky-blue velvet. In the middle of the quilt was a gaping hole. My grandmother was standing with her hands on her hips and muttering to herself: "At my age what I really need is a nice scrap for the center."
And so the magic begins:
"Now it happened that that on Tuesdays the magician had lunch with his three friends, the Magician of the Mountains of Sandusky, the Magician of the Mountains of Elyria, and the Magician of the Mountains of Detroit. They took turns meeting at each other's houses. Every fourth Tuesday they met at the house of the Magician of the Mountains of Cleveland, who had a spell for making chocolate pudding with cream and leftovers..."
dePaola captures the charm of a child's blending of fact and fiction, and confusion. In 2011, after having written and illustrated over 200 books, dePaola was awarded the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for his lifetime contribution to American children's literature.
Nancy Willard was an award-winning writer, including the Newberry Award for A Visit to William Blake's Inn, and the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award for the first two books in the Anatole Trilogy.
- Sailing to Cythera, and other Anatole Stories (1974)
- The Island of the Grass King: The Further Adventures of Anatole (1979)
- Uncle Terrible: More Adventures of Anatole (1982)
Condition*: Very good/very good.
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