Show Way

This book tells the story of slavery. It talks about the hardships and struggles female slaves faced. The book tells the story through the lines of generations. It also explained how these ladies would sew squares to make a quilt to resemble how they got through slavery. The illustrations are quite colorful and the quilt pieces make up the background of all the pictures. This text is full circle meaning it starts and ends the same way. It also has a lot of other pieces of figurative language, like repetition and metaphors. It was very cool to have read a novel (Feathers) written by Jacqueline Woodson and then a picture book by her. It was interesting to see the similarities in her writing between the two. I found that out that I really enjoy her writing and the use of symbolism.

I would love to use this book in my classroom one day. I feel that it would be a good book to tackle the issue of diversity and bring up “hard to talk” about topics. It really focuses on the culture of African Americans and also looks at it from women’s perspectives which is very rare. If I were to use this book in my class, I would want my students to create their own square for a class quilt. They can devise a plan of how they will make it through that grade, their goals, and their dreams. It would be a great class collaboration project that I feel students would really enjoy. The artwork in this picture book brings the words to life and really showcases the African American culture. I feel like my students would really enjoy this book and the perspective of slavery that it portrays.

Show Way

Author: Jacqueline Woodson

Illustrator: Hudson Talbott

Year Published: 2005