The Sugar Camp Quilt

March 15, 2005
In the seventh entry in the Elm Creek Quilt series, Chiaverini returns to Creek's Crossing, Pennsylvania, in the period before the Civil War, when quilts were used as markers along the Underground Railroad. Nineteen-year-old Dorothea Granger, dutiful daughter and niece, teaches at the local school, the closest she can come to fulfilling her dreams of education and career. Her younger brother, Jonathan, is studying medicine in Boston and is seen as the likely heir to the farm where her family lives under the scrutiny of cantankerous Uncle Jacob. When her uncle asks Dorothea to make him a quilt with very specific instructions, she obeys but is intrigued and annoyed at the request, as it takes her away from the task of quilting to raise funds to build a library and wondering about the intentions of a potential suitor and a mysterious newcomer. The Granger family and their small town become increasingly torn by encroaching efforts to round up or to assist runaway slaves.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)

March 1, 2005
In 1849, 19-year-old Dorothea Granger and her strongly abolitionist parents are at the mercy of Uncle Jacob, a bitter, hard-driving man with a tragic past. Dorothea has just been removed from her teaching job to make way for the dour Mr. Nelson. Jacob puts Dorothea to work on a quilt of his design and is adamant that she make it according to his peculiar specifications. When Jacob is found dead, the Grangers are even more stunned to learn that his nearby Sugar Camp, site of his famous maple syrup operation, has doubled as a station in the Underground Railroad. Dorothea realizes that her quilt is a map to the next station and bravely continues her uncle's work, despite the great peril to herself and the runaway slaves she is helping. Steeped in rich period detail and gentle romance, this seventh entry in Chiaverini's "Elm Creek Quilts" series wonderfully captures the courage of the Underground Railroad supporters and the runaways who risked everything to find freedom. Recommended for most collections. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ "12/04.] -Beth E. Andersen, Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI

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