A stitch in time Book

"Repairing and Blending the Fabric of their Lives"

In this first novel of the Quilt trilogy Rinaldi introduces readers to a gentle, compassionate 6-year-old protagonist, Hannah Chelmsford of Salem, Ma. The Revolutionary War has ended; the former colonists are moving West'to the wild frontier of Kentucky where the relations between the Shawnee and Americans are becoming strained, resulting in hostilities on both sides. Back in civilized New England the Chelmsford household, ruled by a domineering patriarch, is in turmoil as a result of secret grudges gradually coming to the fore.

Since the death of their mother two sons and three daughters have struggled with self-esteem issues, emotional survival and guilt about the past. Yet it remains Hannah's cherished dream to create a family quilt--thereby reconnecting the broken threads of her parents' and sibling's lives. Her request for fabric scraps from some of her friends sparks resentment from her irascible father. This tyrannical man seems to hate his youngest, 12-year-old Cabot, yet he favors his willful, odd-eyed daughter, Thankful over her sisters. In fact Chelsmford blames Hannah, mistress of this dysfunctional family at a tender age, for conniving with Abby's elopement to her Southern beau, and later for urging that he bring Thankful with him on his journey West.

Uneasy whispers about her maligned mother's past creep gradually into the open, as Hannah faces serious challenges: to stitch her own portion of the Quilt, to effect reforms at her father's new textile mill, and to monitor her confused young heart's yearnings between Louis, a lost love now on the frontier, and for Richard, a childhood friend and protector, now a sea captain. This loyal and devoted daughter yearns for peace within her tortured family, secretly dreaming to somehow repair cruel damage done in the painful past. Will she ever achieve freedom from her father's insidious control, whose financial manipulation controls even her fiancé? The carefully-crafted plot is cleverly layered onto an historical setting which includes details about Yankee shipping, the textile industry, and how the near West was won. Makes readers want to continue with the next book in the series.

(March 27, 2013. I welcome dialogue with teachers.)