Ellen's Story

American Quilts #1

by Susan Kirby

A family, like a quilt, can be pieced together in many ways. And a quilt, like a family, is reach with stories. Lacey's great-grandmother has a trunkful of family quilts, and stories, she loves to share with Lacey. And the stories the old quilts tell help Lacey understand not only the generations that have come before her, but her own family as well.

Take Ellen, Lacey's great-great-great-great-grandmother, growing up on an Illinois farm in 1830. Ellen asks her father to bring her some blue calico; instead, he brings her a new stepmother, Julia, and Julia's difficult son, Silas. It isn't until clashes between Silas and Ellen's father threaten to tear her new family apart that Ellen realizes how much Julia has come to mean to her -- but is it too late to save her patchwork family?

181 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2000

Reviews

[Mellanie C · Rating 4 out of 5]

This echoed back to Sarah Plain and Tall.

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am rereading this children's series this year and passing the books along to a friend. We are making a Prairie Queen quilt as the theme in my quilt group and this series deals with that period of history. The books bring you into the atmosphere of life during the mid 1800's and share the life of families struggling to build a life for their family on the prairie.

For a young person, it is a great way to touch history. I would recommend these books for anyone who likes the Little House on the Prairie books.

Each book continues with another generation of the Tandy family. The first book is Ellen's story and how she moves from struggling to accept the loss of her mother in childbirth to a new kind of acceptance as her father brings home a bride when returning from a cattle run.

For anyone who likes fiction with a quilt connection, this is a sweet story to read.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story reminds me a bit of when my own grandma would tell stories of family members from the past. And since some of my own relatives lived in rural Illinois during the 1800's, it was fun to get a glimpse of what life was like in that time and place.