Publisher's Weekly Review
If ever there were a perfect book to curl up with on a cold night, this is it. With both humor and poignancy, Hines (Pieces: A Year in Poems & Quilts) again puts on display an astounding amount of effort and craftsmanship in a collection of child-friendly poems and custom-made quilts that feature striking images of winter light as it's experienced around the world. From Christmas trees and decorative farolitos to a Hanukkah menorah, from a bold full moon to the aurora borealis, her artistic interpretations of light emerging from winter darkness sparkle, and will likely dazzle readers. An end section about quilt-making (and the lore of light) should also fascinate fans. Ages 5-up. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Primary) Sixteen poems depict several winter holidays and a few features of cold northern weather. The ambitious art is the real draw: each spread is illustrated with a quilt designed and sewn by Hines. While some poems are accompanied by appliqued shapes creating a representational winter landscape or holiday scene, most of the quilts employ traditional pattern techniques. Within these geometric designs, Hines uses careful fabric choices to create recognizable images full of motion -- and emotion. The variety of poetic forms and the simple language will make this book useful in the classroom, but with luck, Winter Lights will be enjoyed not just at school but also when curled up at home under a quilt. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Hines's art is quilted; here she makes astonishingly beautiful images in her quilts and uses them as illustrations for a wreath of poems about winter celebrations, light and dark, in the Northern hemisphere. Amazingly, she can create the sense of glitter, flash and flame in pieces of cloth. She honors St. Lucia, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Solstice and many other images of the season: the aurora borealis, farolitos, Christmas tree and house lights. A poem about icicles--"Overnight / an icicle grew, / catching the stars / above my window. / Now / in the sunlight / it / sets/ them / free"--is set over a mass of quilted stars made of more than 8,000 tiny triangles of vibrant color. A three-line poem called "Fireplace" shows quilted flames dancing like tiny elves. A small child protests the sun's going down so early in a snow-covered landscape of quilted pattern and opalescent glow. A sparkling read-aloud choice for the holiday time of year. (author's note) (Picture book. 5-9) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Gr. 1-3. Winter is the time of lights, and Hines celebrates the season in thoughtful poems and pictures of gorgeous quilts full of bright, beautiful colors. Christmas is only one of the light-producing celebrations that Hines illuminates. The feast of Santa Lucia, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and the Chinese New Year are spectacularly introduced with short bursts of poetry and quilts that capture the spirit of the day--a Hanukkah menorah, for example, colored all blue and gold, is set against thin, blue stripes of different fabrics, giving depth and weight to the holiday feeling. Two of the most beautiful spreads are not about holidays at all. A black background with a burst of starlight marks the winter solstice, and amazing shifts of colors across two pages evoke the Aurora borealis (A billowing curtain of swirling, swooping light ). Christmas is elaborated upon in several pieces, the most handsome highlighting farolitos, paper bag lanterns said to light Mary and Joseph's path. The back matter, of most interest to adults and young quilters, explains in words and photos how the quilts were made. A lovely follow-up to Hines' Pieces: A Year in Poems & Quilts (2001). --Ilene Cooper Copyright 2005 Booklist
