The Keep­ing Quilt has become a beloved clas­sic in the past quar­ter cen­tu­ry for its heart­warm­ing sto­ry, its mag­net­ic char­coal art­work with splash­es of bright col­or on every page, its envelop­ing atmos­phere, and its abil­i­ty to link past and present seam­less­ly togeth­er — as seam­less­ly as a mag­nif­i­cent, hand-sewn quilt, made with love and trea­sured by family. 

This is the sto­ry of an arti­fact passed on through the gen­er­a­tions. It all start­ed with Great-Gram­ma Anna who arrived from Rus­sia and stitched a quilt from scraps belong­ing to fam­i­ly mem­bers so that the fam­i­ly here would ​“always remem­ber home.” It came down in time to Patri­cia and her chil­dren who cher­ish it to this very day. It was used as a table­cloth for birth­day cel­e­bra­tions. It was used as a hup­pa for brides and grooms. It was used to wrap new­born babies, keep the chill off elder­ly legs and even as a super­hero cape for times of fun and games. And as the book about the quilt became increas­ing­ly pop­u­lar and more and more beloved, it was brought to schools to edu­cate chil­dren about his­to­ry and con­nec­tion, about fam­i­ly and tra­di­tion. In this new edi­tion, Polac­co con­tin­ues the sto­ry of the quilt. As it con­tin­ued to be part of fam­i­ly his­to­ry and fam­i­ly life, it became frag­ile and del­i­cate and even­tu­al­ly it had to be retired — but not com­plete­ly. Today it resides in a muse­um where it con­tin­ues to edu­cate and inspire and con­tin­ues to help make con­nec­tions between one gen­er­a­tion and the next. As a touch­ing and very mean­ing­ful coda, Polacco’s chil­dren sur­prised her by hav­ing the quilt lov­ing­ly dupli­cat­ed so the new ver­sion can con­tin­ue to spread joy and com­fort as did the orig­i­nal for so many years. 

A brief author’s note at the end thanks read­ers for shar­ing in the jour­ney of the quilt. The many read­ers who have loved The Keep­ing Quilt over the years will be inter­est­ed in hear­ing the con­tin­u­a­tion of its tale. Although the book is most often rec­om­mend­ed for ages 4 – 8, it can soar well beyond that age group when used in dis­cus­sion of tra­di­tion, con­ti­nu­ity and fam­i­ly con­nec­tion and is, in many ways, a book for any age and any stage as it res­onates in the heart of any­one who cher­ish­es fam­i­ly tra­di­tions and warm memories.