She Stitched the Stars: A Story of Ellen Harding Baker's Solar System Quilt

by Jennifer Harris, Louise Pigott (Illustrator)

Overview

At a time when girls and women were supposed to limit their worlds to home, one mother looked beyond—to space.

In 1876 Ellen Harding Baker began stitching an extraordinary quilt, one that accurately depicted our solar system. Ellen, a Iowa storekeeper's wife and a mother, had a curiosity that reached far beyond the stratosphere. Today the quilt hangs in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. This lyrical story imagines the creation of the quilt from the perspective of Ellen’s daughters, who, like their mother, lived in a time when girls and women were expected to limit their pursuit of knowledge, and who may have been inspired to dream bigger and look farther.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807573228
Publisher:	Whitman, Albert & Company
Publication date:	10/01/2021
Series:	She Made History
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	607,579
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)
Lexile:	AD620L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Jennifer Harris is a professor of English at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, specializing in nineteenth-century American literature. This is her first book for children.

Louise Pigott creates vibrant, detailed, and atmospheric illustrations for children's books and greeting cards that have appeared around the world.

Editorial Reviews

"This lively portrayal of the girls and their mother sparkles with curiosity and joy; it's sure to inspire questions in young listeners as it embraces feminism, history, creativity, and science. An engaging inquiry into the lives of everyday girls who are limited by historical circumstance but yearn for more."—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2021-08-31
An imagined history of a unique creation and its creators.

In 1876, Ellen Harding Baker began a visual depiction of the solar system in the form of a quilt that now has a home in the National Museum of American History. But this was a time when women were told to focus on domestic chores—not science. What led Ellen to make her quilt? What was she like as a mother? What was growing up like for her daughters? The text bubbles with enthusiasm as it conjectures that she “inspired her children to dream bigger, to ask questions, to reach for more,” to climb, run, dare, and help their mother research, plan, and stitch the quilt. Warm illustrations brimming with nature and filled with quiet energy show Ellen and her daughters teaching, learning, and exploring the nature around them as they fulfill household obligations and find time to work on the quilt. Though sometimes mildly pedantic (“Neighboring women remind us it’s a girl’s duty to sit quietly….Their meaning coils around us: embroider your obedience, embroider only your world”), overall, this lively portrayal of the girls and their mother sparkles with curiosity and joy; it’s sure to inspire questions in young listeners as it embraces feminism, history, creativity, and science. Save for one young modern museumgoer, all characters depicted present White.

An engaging inquiry into the lives of everyday girls who are limited by historical circumstance but yearn for more. (author's note) (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews