Quilt of States: Piecing Together America Book

Clever use of quilts to illustrate a history of the United States. Each state gets its own two-page spread, with a quilted map, and quilted pieces showing other aspects of the state's history. Each state has a little historical vignette, written by a librarian from that state (Yay! Librarians!)

There are some problems, though. You have to flip to the end notes for more information on each state--incorporating a fact box into each spread would have made better sense. It also reduces the book from a reference source to a browsing-for-tidbits coffee table book. Also, some elements of the quilts are simply not explained anywhere in the book. Why is there a pitcher for West Virginia? What native people created the pottery and basketry in the Arizona quilt? Adults will understand the presence of a (very outdated) computer in the California quilt, or the steamboat in the Missouri quilt; will kids? I expected more from a book with the "National Geographic" imprimatur.