Oma's Quilt

Brenda Baltensperger is a playwright, a director of children’s
theatre, an editor of children’s fiction, and the author of Fractured
Fairy-tales.

Emily’s grandmother, or “Oma” as she calls her, is moving out of
her house into a nursing home and Oma finds the transition difficult.
For the first time, she can no longer cook her famous cabbage soup or
strudel, and she regards the other residents at the home as nincompoops.


Back at Oma’s house, Emily helps her mother sort out all the items
Oma has collected over the years. Some things are to be kept and others
discarded. Emily suggests that they make a quilt from some of the items
of clothing they are planning to throw out. As the two of them work hard
at it, Emily learns from her mother how to sew the pieces together. When
Emily and her mother present the quilt to Oma, she tells them the story
behind each square of fabric and thanks them for bringing her the memory
quilt and the love it represents. Eventually Oma accepts her situation
and even helps out in the nursing home kitchen once in a while, but
still regards the other occupants as nincompoops.

Oma’s Quilt is a beautifully illustrated, gentle story that will help
younger readers better understand what older relatives go through when
leaving a home they’ve lived in for many years. Highly recommended.