Video of the Week--Christmas Tapestry
From SLJ January 2005
Angela J. Reynolds, Washington Co. Cooperative Library, Hillsboro, OR -- School Library Journal, 12/27/2004
videocassette. color. 24:47 min. Spoken Arts. 2004. ISBN 0-8045-9692-1. $49.95.
PreS-Gr 4-Settled into a cozy room decorated for the holiday, Patricia Polacco skillfully reads her book (Philomel, 2002) while iconographic reproductions of the book's pencil and watercolor artwork and real-life shots of churches and woods are shown onscreen. Jonathon and his family have moved from Tennessee to Detroit, where his father has taken over as pastor of a dilapidated Baptist church. The boy can't understand why the family had to leave their nice home and friends. But as the church and congregation develop, Jonathan grows to love it. Near Christmas time, a blizzard ruins the sacristy wall and Jonathan and his dad purchase an old appliquéd cloth and hang it on the wall. The cloth is miraculously at the heart of a reunion between an elderly Jewish couple who were Holocaust survivors. Polacco originally discovered this touching tale, which shows that there is a reason for everything, told as homilies. In her signature style, she combines art and story to create an intergenerational and interfaith tale.
