Cassie's Word Quilt

by Faith Ringgold

In this 32-page lap book we join Cassie, the main character from the picture book Tar Beach. As she takes us on a tour of her home, neighborhood, and school, dozens of new words are introduced with simple labels throughout. Young readers will love the simple story line and all the new words they’ll encounter. They’ll relish the beautifully designed spreads, each with its own quilt motif. The bright, boldly colored pages will attract even the youngest lookers, and the words will teach pre-reading skills to slightly older children. The size makes it perfect for story hours, and the price makes it perfect for every home.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, School, Family, Fiction, Art, Cultural

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Mariah Roze · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book only showed words and pictures of objects in a scene. There was no story plot. This would be good for students that are trying to identify objects with their names.

This book was hard to use in my class because they are above that and there was nothing to talk about because there was no storyline.

[Catherine Woodman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really love the work of Faith Ringgold and making African American history available to kids

[Brenda Barrino]

Book: Cassie's Word Quilt by Faith Ringgold

Description: Cassie takes us on a tour of her home; neighborhood, and school, dozens of new words are introduced with simple labels throughout.

Focus: Labels. RI.1.5 Know and use various text features to locate key facts or information in a text.

Teach: Tell students that today's book will help us all to become better writers. Share the title of the book (Read 1st half).
Ask, "What is a quilt? Does anyone here have a quilt at home?" Read Cassie's Word Quilt by Faith Ringgold. While reading, show students the illustrations and Say, "Labels are writing that authors and illustrators use to tell their audience [readers] what something is." Share with students that you'd like them to find the "labels" in the book.
Open the book again and take a picture walk, looking for things that are labeled.
Remind students that writers [authors and illustrators] use labels to tell their readers what something is.
Model for students how to add a label [or labels] to a story.

Expected Outcome: Students will add labels to their writing. Students will connect that labels are details that helps readers better understand the text.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for sharing with emergent readers because of its letters of the alphabet and labels for the objects in Cassie's world, this picture book doesn't have much of a storyline. The brightly-colored folk art illustrations feature Cassie showing off the sights in her Harlem home. I like how the book starts with her room, her apartment, and then moves into the block on which she lives, always spreading out as though her world is growing ever-larger. I also love the quilt patterns woven into the book's visual background. Ideal for sharing with readers one on one or in small groups so that they can pay attention to the details in the images, this picture book will be a favorite of readers who enjoyed Tar Beach, which features the very same Cassie. My own appreciation of the book was lessened only by what I expected it to be--focusing on words and word play--but for what it turns out to be, it works well.

[Bean · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Faith Ringgold's work, but this one fell flat for me. I don't mind plotless stories, and actually, I did like the word quilts combined with the labeled scenes from Cassie's life. I just didn't find the illustrations as rich as I've experienced from Ringgold's other stories, and I didn't appreciate the cop feature.

[Jodysegal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Young children and early readers will delight in visiting Cassie’s everyday world, as she takes them on a quilt by quilt patchwork tour of her bedroom, apartment, school and more. Patches depict each of the words, while the following page puts words and pictures together where they belong in each of her rooms.

Black Issues Book Review: Ringgold, who is an artist and author of the Coretta Scott King Award-winning book Tar Beach, has created an engaging primer for children as young as 6 months to 4 years to get them started on the path to reading. Young readers who have not yet met Cassie, the main character in Tar Beach, will joyfully embark on this adventure with their parents and teachers.

This is a wordbook, but much more. It is a lesson in the history and culture of New York City, 1939.

[Rebecca Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book to use for an art project that would allow the children to express themselves and their lives. The teacher can read this book to them and then have them each make their own word quilt. Allow the children to use various materials and art supplies. After they make their word quilt they can write about what the places, people, and things they drew.

[Annette Taylor-james · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cassie's Word Quilt by Faith Ringgold is among our favorite books, the colors are bold and inviting the children can relate to living in an apartment. They can identify some of the things that are in her room even though some may ask what is a stereo? We have made word quilt in our classroom, we have done number quilt and color quilt all these activities were inspired by this book.

[Amy the book-bat · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book takes the character of Cassie from the book Tar Beach and uses her to introduce words to young children. I have seen other books do the same thing a little better, What saves this book is the artwork by Faith Ringgold.

[Elizabeth]

Meh. We get a couple lines and then a bunch of sort of like flashcard images and then a 2-page spread with all the items those ~flashcard were drawn from (labeled with text), so I guess it could be good for kids learning vocabulary, but I wasn't particularly into it.

[Artlab]

This Book is located in the PATTERN box.

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cassie's Word Quilt
by Faith Ringgold
a good introductory resource for writing

[Lesley Looper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute picture book for early readers learning new words in print. Probably helps the cute factor if you know Cassie from other Ringgold books.

[Stacy Vance · Rating 3 out of 5]

Colorful pictures. Students enjoyed this book.

[Cara Farmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is from the author of Tar Beach. I love the illustrations. This is a great book for early word recognition.

[Bethe · Rating 3 out of 5]

The connection to quilts isn't very evident other than the quilt frames on some pages. Good for beginning readers for the labels on the pictures of things in Cassie's life.

[Jacquelyn Arbegast · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an easy read book. This book is Cassie showing us her home. While she does this, she shows a picture of each object and then we see a scene of her home with everything in its place.

[Y.Poston]

a cute first words book

[Kids Books · Rating 1 out of 5]

kids didnt even finish it

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shows words on a quilt and how they go together in an everyday scene.

[Rick Christiansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would be a good book for second langauge learners

[Lauren C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a fun read for my young readers.

[Bryce Decker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is perfect for teaching sight words for children. The sight words each come with their own beautiful illustration.

[Jo Oehrlein · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book that shows pictures of various things in Cassie's world. Much like a Richard Scarry book, but without the story line.

Good for ELL?