Faith Ringgold--Quilting in Children's Literature

 The books I'm highlighting today use quilts as illustration for stories and inspiration for page layouts.

 

Ringgold, Faith. Tar Beach. Dragonfly, 1991.

Ringgold, Faith. Cassie's Word Quilt. Dragonfly, 2002.

 

 

Tar Beach and Cassie's Word Quilt are but two of Faith Ringgold's contributions to children's literature. She won the Caldecott Honor Award and the Coretta Scott King award for her story quilt illustrations in Tar Beach. Her narrative quilts are painted, pieced, and quilted.

 

Ringgold, Faith. Tar Beach 2. 1990. Quilt.

 

Tar Beach tells the story of Cassie and her flight of imagination and wonder as she looks up into the night sky from the roof of an apartment house. The painted illustrations in the book are based upon the story quilt and the page borders are reproductions of the actual quilt borders.

Ringgold, Faith. Cassie's Word Quilt. Title Page.

In Cassie's Word Quilt, we take what the publisher calls a "patchwork tour" of Cassie's home and neighborhood. Some of the pages are bordered with photographs of fabric borders much like those in Tar Beach. The layout of the book features both full-page paintings, and small word and painting squares, and the spreads are reminiscent of a quilt layout.

Ringgold, Faith. Cassie's Word Quilt.

Ringgold, Faith. Cassie's Word Quilt.

Ringgold has published several children's books. You can learn more about her and her art HERE.

If you would like to hear Ringgold read Tar Beach, a video can be found HERE.

 

Happy Quilting! 😺

 

A reminder--you can find my posts on Quilts in Children's Literature by clicking "Children's Literature" in the list of labels on the right-hand pane of this blog.

NOTE: I found my books used from BetterWorldBooks.com. I can highly recommend this site. Not only do they always have free shipping, but they also contribute a book to someone in need for every book you buy. I was not compensated for this recommendation--I just love doing business with them