Book review: A Quilt of Wishes

While scanning the web for information relating to the 100 Good Wishes custom, I came across a reference to a children's picture book on just this subject. After waffling over the hardback version in my local bookstore, I decided to purchase it in paperback from Amazon.

The book is called "A Quilt of Wishes," and it was written by Teresa Orem Werner and illustrated by Nathan Tremlin. From the acknowledgements page, it is clear that the story was based on the Werner family's experiences preparing for the arrival of their internationally-adopted daughter, Natalie Xiao Li.

The story tells of Xiao Li, an orphan in China, and her adoptive parents. While the parents wait for the adoption process to complete, they worry about their little girl, wondering whether she is safe and warm there on the other side of the world.

Remembering how her childhood quilt brought her warmth and comfort, the mother begins a quilt for her baby daughter. Friends and family members learn about this blanket, and send scraps of brightly colored cloth together with beautiful wishes for the little girl. When the quilt is complete, the mother sends it to China.

Xiao Li's nanny opens the box and admires the beautiful quilt, remembering the 100 Good Wishes quilt she was given when she was a child. But this quilt only has 50 squares. She takes it home with her that night, and, in a lovely scene, "within an hour, fifty women who had come to love Xiao Li... showed up with squares of fabric to be added to the quilt." Together they use red thread to stitch the old and new squares together, creating a quilt that will wrap Xiao Li in love and good wishes that stretch from the land of her birth to the land where her future lies.

(As a quilter, I wondered briefly how they added new squares without completely deconstructing the old quilt, but I found myself too caught up in the story to give more than a passing thought to such technicalities.)

When the parents come to get the little girl, the new and improved quilt stands as visible testimony to just how deeply she was loved and cared for even before they held her in their arms. The mother wonderingly realizes that the soft blanket which had been meant to comfort her daughter has comforted her own fears as well.

If there were anything I would change about this sweet book, it's probably something that's partially my own fault. When I saw the hardback version at my bookstore, the illustrations were intensely colored but lovely; when I opened the box to look at the paperback I purchased online, I saw pictures that seemed heavy on magenta. While this gives the Good Wishes quilt a luscious ruby border, and makes the famous red couch at the White Swan Hotel practically glow, it also means that the mother and baby appear sunburned throughout the story. (I probably should have paid more attention to the relative colors of the book covers when I viewed them online.)

While the hardback is a little more expensive (as you would expect), the author has pledged to donate a portion of the proceeds from the sale to the FTIA foster care program in Changsha, Hunan, China, so that other babies can receive the same quality care that her daughter Natalie did.

FTIA supports foster care programs in Hunan and Zhanjiang, China. These programs sponsor carefully selected foster families to care for children who would otherwise be raised in an orphanage. While the orphanages give the children the best care possible, in-home foster care allows for children to receive much more personal care and attention than an institution can provide.

Donations to these programs are used to provide foster care and better quality nutrition for the children. Participating foster parents receive training and education by our FTIA staff in China to better equip them to care for the children.

100% of all monies received for these programs are used for the children – nothing is deducted for any kind of administrative expenses. All administrative costs are provided for by FTIA. (FTIA, "China Foster Care Program")

The early years are such a critical time in a child's development that programs like this really can make a tremendous difference in the lives of those little ones. It's hard to begrudge a few dollars to such a worthy cause.

Buy it in hardback: