Horn Book
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Fiction: PB At the age of eight, a young girl is finally allowed to touch one of the treasures in her grandmother's tall glass cabinet--a lovely shawl from Great-aunt Emmadelle. As her grandmother retells the shawl's story, the girl wraps herself in the silken heirloom and pretends to dance the flamenco that her great-aunt learned to do years ago. Impressionistic oil paintings illustrate the poorly paced, repetitive text. Horn Rating: Marginal, seriously flawed, but with some redeeming quality. Reviewed by: tda (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly
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A debut author and illustrator pay tribute to family heirlooms and the stories they can tell. For the first time, Nana allows her eight-year-old granddaughter to handle the embroidered shawl from her locked cabinet of family heirlooms. Thrilled, the girl first holds the shawl, then wears it, then?wheedling a little for each new privilege?dances as her grandmother tells how it was a gift to Nana from her sister Emmadelle, a researcher of folk dances. The shawl was worn by Gypsy flamenco dancers, who "moved like a summer storm coming and going?hot sunlight and wind, slow thunder, quick lightning." Gregory's oil paintings of dancing include vibrant purples, greens and oranges, and strong, interpretive compositions, but the more domestic scenes with the heirlooms are frustratingly soft-focus. Borders of pictures, buttons, old letters tied with ribbons and other sentimental artifacts surround the text. The fussy, protective grandmother's "my, my" gets a little stale, but the book successfully suggests the dramatic life stories harbored within such musty treasures. All ages. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved