Peaceful Pieces: Poems and Quilts About Peace

Hines pairs poems with images of her handmade quilts to reflect on the theme of peace. Several works focus on individual relationships: when two sisters fight, their mother makes them face each other at close range, which diffuses their anger into laughter ("It's hard to keep on fighting/ when you're touching nose to nose"). Poems like "Soldier Daddy" are socially resonant: "Daddy?/ Are you not listening again?/ Are you still sad from the war?" Often Hines needs just a few words to convey oceans of meaning: "Peace Is/ when all/ of them/ are us." The beauty and painstaking detail evident in each quilt bring the book's vision a stitch closer. Ages 4–8. (Mar.)