Hazel Rochman (Booklist, Sep. 15, 2005 (Vol. 102, No. 2))
A Show Way is a quilt with secret meanings, and the image works as both history and haunting metaphor in this exquisite picture book. Based on Woodson's own history, the unforgettable story tells of African American women across generations, from slavery and the civil rights movement to the present. The cut-out jacket design is impressive, as is Talbott's mixed-media artwork inside, which extends Woodson's clear poetic narrative with beautiful collages that make use of big triangles, squares, and curves to emphasize portraits and landscapes and show connections and courage. The first double-page spread is of anguished separation when Soonie's great-grandmother is sold "without her ma or pa." Growing up on a plantation in South Carolina, Soonie learns from Big Mama about children "growing up and getting themselves free," and also how to sew quilts with signs that show the way to freedom. Time passes: Soonie's granddaughter, Georgiana, has twin girls who march for freedom in the 1960s. The final glorious spread shows Georgiana's granddaughter, Jacqueline Woodson, laughing at home with her own beloved daughter, Toshi Georgiana, whose picture is embedded in a quilt, connecting her with those who came before. A must for the classroom, this story will move many readers to explore their own family roots; link it to the Booklist interview with Woodson [BKL F 1 05], in which she talks about what she owes to those who came before her. Category: Books for Middle Readers--Fiction. 2005, Putnam, $16.99. Gr. 3-5. Starred Review

Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz (Children's Literature)
Fabric is sewn into the strikingly attractive quilts that decorate the endpapers and lead us into this tale of generations of an African-American family as they move from slavery to freedom. When Soonie’s seven-year-old grandma is sold from Virginia to a South Carolina plantation, she takes with her muslin, thread, and needles. She learns to sew from Big Mama, making a quilt that was a map to freedom for some. The young girl grows up, jumps the broom, and has a baby girl named Mathis May who also learns to sew, is sold, and takes a piece of fabric with her as well. She also knows how to make the map quilt called the “Show Way.” After the Civil War when she is free, she has a baby girl as well. In colloquial language and almost poetic cadence, Woodson brings us in time to Soonie, her life of work and sewing quilts, and to her children and grandchildren “walking in a line to change the laws” of segregation. Having traced the generations, the story ends as it began. With watercolors, chalk, and fabrics Talbott sometimes creates double-page scenes of events. Other pages include gray interpretations of contemporary documents, and still others are designed like pieces of quilts with vignettes. Through many we see a ribbon or road of the growing colorful quilt. Beyond information, the illustrations convey a lyricism with the positive message. The arresting cover has a diamond-shaped cut-out framed with the quilt but surrounded by dark documentary vignettes. Through the opening we see Mathis May holding a candle to light our way. 2005, G.P. Putnam’s Sons/Penguin Young Readers Group, $16.99. Ages 5 to 9.

Karen Leggett (Children's Literature)
Quilts can be filled with warmth, family memories, and maps--maps made of symbols to “show the way” for slaves seeking freedom. Jacqueline Woodson tells her own family’s story, shared through generations of women making quilts. The story is richly layered, poignant but also joyous, like a quilt that tells many stories in each special piece of fabric. There is joy in life’s simple but momentous transitions; for example: “jumped broom with a young man named Ensler,” “had herself a baby girl…Loved that baby up so.” Woodson’s language is lyrical, often using dialect and poetic repetition. Hudson Talbott’s illustrations are equally rich with colors of joy and wonder but also fear and questioning. Quilts and pieces of fabric swirl around the pages, many of which are divided into quilt-like shapes. By the time Woodson reaches the story of her Grandma Soonie, two little girls in pink look up fearfully at a patchwork quilt of black and white photos from the civil rights movement. The story concludes with Woodson sharing the family story with her own small daughter, “Holding tight to little Toshi, I whisper a story that came before her…” This book is an exquisitely warm, personal, and dramatic story that will move readers of all ages. 2005, G.P. Putnam, $16.99. Ages 5 up.

Meredith Humphrey (Children's Literature)
This incredibly illustrated book tells the story of author Jacqueline Woodson’s family and the beliefs that got them through tough times. The story begins with Soonie’s great-grandmother being sold to a plantation in South Carolina. There, she learns to sew with colored thread and makes quilts that show slaves the way to freedom. Soonie’s great-grandmother grows up to have a daughter of her own, who has Soonie, who has another daughter and so on. Each generation passes down the art of sewing meaningful designs into quilts, but now the descendents make the quilts to sell and not to help others to escape to freedom. Soonie’s daughter Georgiana has twins, Carolina and Ann, who fight for the end of segregation. Ann then has Jacqueline, the author, who learns to write stories about the women who came before her and the path that showed them the way through their struggles. Each page of this elaborately illustrated book serves as a patch on the quilt of the story Woodson is telling. A few pages have backgrounds of illustrated newspaper clippings about the issues of the day, featuring headlines like “Male and Female SLAVES” or “3,000 Troops Put Down Mississippi Rioting.” Other pages have pictures of famous slaves like Harriet Tubman, and on one page the ground is composed of inspiring quotes. These pictures create a beautiful patchwork that complements Woodson’s story well and seamlessly teaches the audience about the struggles of African Americans in general and of Woodson’s family in particular. 2005, G.P. Putnam’s Sons/Penguin, $16.99. Ages 6 to 8.

Susie Wilde (Children's Literature)
Jacqueline Woodson won a 2006 Newbery-honor award for this picture book. It also deserved a Caldecott for the way Hudson Talbott’s collages and watercolors express Woodson’s poetic story of her family history. The story begins with Soonie’s great-grandma who at seven was sold from her parents and left “with some muslin her ma had given her and two needles she got from the big house and thread dyed bright red with berries from the chokecherry tree.” Stories and textiles unite in Soonie’s mind and she sews quilts to guide her people to freedom. This story sets up a pattern of how fabric, tales, and familial love thread through Woodson’s family tree, becoming “show ways” that first guide slaves to freedom and later become symbols of how each generation found courage to live brave, artistic, full lives. 2005, Putnam, $16.99. Ages 6 up.

CCBC (Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices, 2006)
As author Jacqueline Woodson traces her family history from the times of slavery to today, she celebrates the resilience of each successive generation as embodied by a woman or girl who courageously strived for more—for herself, her family, and her people. Each woman or girl is known by her spirit and accomplishments if not always by her name. Connecting each generation in Woodson’s stirring, beautifully written narrative are the sewing skills that were passed down from mother to daughter, along with their stories and the quilt that had mapped the way to freedom: patches and stitches forming the pattern that showed the way. Woodson’s moving tribute to past, present, and future is sewn from the stitches she creates with words, carrying on the tradition in her own way. This moving and uplifting picture book features stunning illustrations by Hudson Talbott that integrate quilt motifs with other images from African American history. CCBC Category: Picture Books for School-Aged Children. 2005, Putnam, 40 pages, $16.99. Ages 5-9.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2005 (Vol. 73, No. 18))
Show Ways are quilts with secret meanings-guides to freedom. In this beautiful volume, quilts are the connecting threads of the generations, from Soonie's great-grandmother, sold away from her Virginia home as a girl of seven, to Soonie's great-great-granddaughter Toshi, Woodson's daughter. It's a celebration of mothers-all of those strong women through the generations who "loved those babies up." Gorgeous multimedia art includes watercolors, chalk and fabric, photographs incorporated into original art and joyous watercolor figures jumping broom. Patchwork and crazy quilts are two common motifs used, the latter, with jagged stitching resembling railroad tracks, representing the harshest of times. Whether quilts were actual maps to freedom or such stories are simply folklore, quilts are a perfect device to portray the generations of a family. Like Deborah Hopkinson's Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt (1993) and Under the Quilt of Night (2001) and Doreen Rappaport's Freedom River (2000), this takes a difficult subject and makes it accessible to young readers. One of the most remarkable books of the year. 2005, Putnam, 48p, $16.99. Category: Picture book. Ages 5 up. Starred Review. © 2005 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Karen Coates, Reviewer (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, January 2006 (Vol. 59, No. 5))
Woodson traces her family through seven generations, from a woman she calls Soonie’s Great-Grandma to her own daughter, Toshi Georgiana. She relates how Mathis May, her great-great-great-grandmother, made quilts called “Show Ways,” which used patterns to indicate paths that slaves could follow to freedom. The text is a lyrical prose poem, incorporating repetitive phrases to good effect for both reading aloud and strengthening the intergenerational connections in a story that recalls Hearne’s Seven Brave Women (BCCB 10/97). Woodson shows the special courage of each woman, whether in enduring slavery, working hard in her own fields, or participating in freedom marches. She reflects that though she doesn’t have to march in protests or work in fields, she still has to find her own Show Way and pass it along to her daughter. The progression aids in clarifying the identity of the various women, and the final swoosh of quilt with the women included in order clears up any residual confusion. Though the human figures are sometimes jarringly perky or overly posed, visuals overall are quite effective: chalk and watercolor depictions of human scenes combine with fabric and paper collage to create pages that resemble the various squares of a “Show Way” quilt; the incorporation of photographic images and inspirational quotations from the history of African Americans completes the metaphoric link between that history and Woodson’s personal story. The resulting effect is much larger than one writer’s biography--it is itself a Show Way to remind audiences of the importance of knowing where they’ve been in order to point the way to their future. Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2006, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2005, Putnam, 48p, $16.99. Ages 6-9 yrs.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2006)
With a refrain of mother love, Woodson traces eight generations in her family, from "Soonie's great-grandma," sold at seven, to Woodson's own little daughter. The earliest in this female line have skills and creativity that will serve their descendants well. Talbott uses the patchwork motif to good effect. Hope, courage, and perseverance light this handsome book. Category: Picture Books. 2005, Putnam, 48pp, 16.99. Ages 4 to 9. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.

Marsha Harper (The Lorgnette - Heart of Texas Reviews (Vol. 18, No. 4))
From the cut-out on its front cover to the final quilt motif on the back endpapers, SHOW WAY is drenched with color and vibrant with rhythmic stories about slaves finding a path to freedom. The slaves are, of course, black people in the American South and are members of one family, Soonie’s great-grandma and her girl children. At the age of seven the children are sold away from their parents but they take a scrap of cloth and their sewing skills with them and they sew beautiful quilts full of stars and moons and the road that leads north to freedom: Show Way quilts. As the years go by, the Civil War is fought and Soonie’s girls become free women but they still sew beautiful quilts and tell stories of their great-grandmothers. Hudson Talbot’s striking art work alternates pages laid out like quilt patterns or in collages or with somber paintings of slave families, then free families, all stitched together by hard work, by their innate artistry, and by love. Poetic and poignant, with flashes of pure happiness, SHOW WAY adds richness to the history of America’s black families. Interestingly, it is based on the author’s own family and serves as its genealogy. Students of American history and art students as well can benefit from this outpouring of slave stories and folk art. It is an excellent choice for Black History Month exhibits and can serve as a springboard for programs. Not surprisingly, SHOW WAY is a Newbery Honor Book for 2006. Fiction, Highly Recommended. Grades 3-6. 2005, Putnam, Unpaged., $16.99. Ages 8 to 12.