9/24/18

For my first reading analysis I read “The Keeping Quilt” by Patricia Polacco. The keeping quilt is essentially a story about a quilt that is passed down from generation to generation after Patricia’s great grandma immigrated to the United States from Russia. Every person in the family adds a piece of their clothing to the quilt throughout each generation. The quilt is a big importance to the family and is apart of many special family events and gatherings. 

My reaction to the book was that it was very sentimental and very touching to see that every family has a different tradition that is meaningful to them. It reminded me a lot of my own family and how we pass down traditions and certain possessions that are meaningful to our family. I enjoyed hearing the story of how the quilt was made and where it originated from, and it was very touching to hear how special the quilt is to Patricia and her family. It made me curious to know what kind of special possessions and traditions other families have that I don’t know about, and also made me curious about what kind of traditions I would pass on to my future family. 

I think that one of the major themes in this book is the meaning of family. This book is focused a lot on family, and the importance and impact of family traditions. The book demonstrates how family traditions and special items hold a lot of meaning and show the identity and history of who a family is. The author touches on how the keeping quilt itself is important, but what’s most important is family itself. From this demonstration, I believe that the author values her family a lot and they are very important to her. She also appreciates and embraces where her family comes from and has incorporated it into multiple aspects and events of her life. She also holds family very close to her heart and is very proud of her culture and ethnicity. 

I thought it was interesting that the illustrations in the book were all in black and white and the only color throughout the book was the actual keeping quilt itself. This part of the illustration really enhances the the important message of family and instills how important the keeping quilt is to the author. The pictures were very detailed and creative and were the main focus of the book. The illustrations took up most of the page while the words were at the bottom and were in a very small font. 

This book is very impactful and influential on how children see the world because it shows that each family has their own traditions and each one is meaningful to that family. I think that children will be able to relate to this book and connect the importance of the tradition of the keeping quilt to a tradition in their family. Children will be able to see the emphasis on the importance of family and possibly why it is important to keep tradition alive. I would recommend reading this book to young readers, and definitely understand why it won an award. 

My impression of the book overall, was that I really liked it and thought that it was very cute. I myself, have no experience with deafness or being deaf so it was interesting to read about what it’s really like and what people that are deaf have to go through. The book allowed me to think about how grateful I am for my hearing and my health, and really put into perspective how challenging something like being deaf would be. It helped me think a lot about how I often take my ability to be able to hear for granted, and how I need to be more understanding and considerate to people that have to deal with being deaf. I often find myself feeling pity for those who are deaf or have hearing loss. This book definitely allowed me to see that people that are deaf to not like to be pitied, and like to be treated as if they were like any other hearing person, despite what you might think they want. It made more curious to know what deafness is really like, and how someone at such a young age was able to overcome something as debilitating as that. It also made me develop a lot more respect for those in the deaf community. 

I think some of the major themes in this book are friendship and self discovery. Throughout the book Cece talks about the power of friendship and how important it is to have true friends that accept you for who you are. Throughout the book Cece goes through a journey of self discovery, and tries to find out who she is and who her true friends are. She goes through many friendships both good and bad, and in the end she discovers who her true friends are. She also learns to accept herself for who she is, and for all of her flaws. Her outlook on being deaf begins to change when she sees her deafness as a superpower, rather than a disability. 

Something that Cece Bell challenges the readers to think about is how your disability doesn’t define who you are. She doesn’t want the readers to see disabilities as something limiting, and instead something that can be used to do good in the world. She is very passionate about inclusion, and not excluding people that may have disabilities. 

I’m not typically used to the graphic novel format, and tend to not like graphic novels personally. I did however, enjoy this book and all of the elements that it presented to me. I thought that it was interesting and cool that she illustrated how she heard the words that were spoken to her and how they made no sense. I also thought that it was interesting that she chose to illustrate herself as a bunny and never got why until I watched her interview. She explained that she chose to do that because it shows how exaggerated she felt her ear chords looked in her ears. She choose a bunny specifically because they have very large ears and it shows how she felt everyone was staring at her. 

I think that this book can really positively impact the way that children view the world. This book really shows kids to be nice to everyone regardless of how different they might be. And that people's disabilities don’t define them or define what they can do. I think it also shows the impact of how important friendship is. 

I think that the main theme of this book was the power of resilience, perseverance, and standing up for what you believe in. Despite the obstacles that he went through Ivan never gave up, and he kept trying his best for a better life for himself and Ruby. I really connected with these themes because, I believe that they are something that everyone learns. Throughout our lives we all learn to overcome the obstacles that we face, and we learn to persevere through the trials and tribulations that we are dealt. 

I think that the potential impact that this story will have on kids will be they will understand more about the fair treatment of animals. Telling the story through Ivan’s point of view helps you to really empathise with how animals in captivity feel. It also really puts into perspective what the people that allow things like this to happen look like to the animals, and how their actions portray them. I think children will connect with it in a very powerful way because it’ll show them the importance of the fair treatment of animals, and that exploiting them is never right. 

There is a very special bond amongst Julia and Ivan. Julia feels bad for Ivan and sees what an intelligent animal he is, and feels that he needs to be treated better. Ivan’s art is important to her because it appeals to her emotions and lets her know what he is really feeling, since he cannot speak it to her. It’s his creative way of communicating with her, and it definitely pulls at her heart strings. Their relationship and understanding of each other is what in the end leads to Ivan’s liberation. 

There are many differences between Mack and George in this story. Mack is more focused on making money, and doesn’t necessarily care for any of the animals that he is in charge of. All that he wants to do is make money from them and exploit them for his own personal gain. Mack knows that this is wrong but he continues to subject the animals to abuse, which is very contradictory to his character. George on the other hand really values his family and feels empathy towards the animals. It is his actions that eventually lead to their release and freedom.