Winter Lights: A Season in Poems & Quilts

by Anna Grossnickle Hines

Sixteen poems about the allure of light during the dark, winter months are illuminated with fifteen original quilt creations made by the author and representing various forms of light--the northern lights, a Christmas tree, a lighted Menorah, moonlight on snow, and more.

Genres: Poetry, Picture Books, Christmas, Holiday, Childrens, Art

32 pages, Hardcover

First published September 27, 2005

Reviews

[Michelle Fournier · Rating 4 out of 5]

2022 Christmas books. This is more of a winter seasonal book with many holidays besides Christmas. Some beautiful illustrations and very fun poems.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had some pretty clever poems. They were perfect for the season and they can apply to almost any reader. My favorite part was looking at each quilt that served as the background for each poem. The quilts were extremely beautiful! They look like they took a lot of effort. =)

[Shellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a surprise book. I’ve gone to a concert that was at the Orem public library and on the way out with a shelf of free books. I pick this one up because of the title, and just looked through it and fell in love with the pictures and grabbed it. I didn’t realize what a treasure it was until I got it home. This is a fantastic book and I think anyone who quilts should have a copy of it. I think anyone who likes poetry (free form) should have this book. This is my new favorite book. I was so excited when I got home it was like I was paid to go to this concert. Anyway, this book is an absolute delight.

[Ruth Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fantastically gorgeous and inspirational book this slim book is! The quilts (and photography) are brilliant, unbelievably breathtaking masterpieces...I could sit and stare at every one of them for an entire day and still find hidden charm and beauty in them. Do yourselves a favor...run out and buy this book as you'll want to meditate and pray with it often throughout the year. The poetry is inspiring, too. Very simple but oh so profound. This book is my favorite book this year...hands down!

[Kris Dersch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing evokes the season quite like this cozy book. Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Chinese New Year, Santa Lucia Day, the winter solstice, and all the quiet nights in between are here in simple poems and gorgeous quilts. For reading aloud to a child, for snuggling with oneself on a quiet night, for inspiring creativity, this is truly a book for any purpose on a chilly winter night.
Featured on the No Extra Words podcast Special #22.

[Rosabelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you enjoy winter, poetry, holidays, and art, this is the book for you. If you just enjoy looking at beautiful quilts, this is still the book for you. Fun, cozy, and beautiful, Ms. Hines sets just the right mood, both with her poetry and quilts, for a dark and beautiful winter filled with light when you look for it.

[Villain E · Rating 4 out of 5]

A reread. I'm not a fan of poetry books, I'd rather have one through-story. But the art is all handmade quilts, and it's really impressive. The poems are inclusive. There are poems in here for all the major winter holidays, as well as some non-holiday winter-themed poems. But mostly, I'm just looking at the art.

[Jeani · Rating 3 out of 5]

The quilts are just lovely, and the poems that accompany them are a nice read for the whole family. We read this, quietly, during our advent family time, and it was enjoyable for all of us, ages 1 and up. The poems are not complicated to understand and there is a good variety, too.

[Laura Hoekstra · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing poetry book with quilted illustrations. From the book’s jacket: “Rich, luminous fabrics. Eleven miles of thread. An uncountable number of stitches. Clear, sparkling words.” The perfect book for a dark, winter evening by the fireplace.

[Karly Drake · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this yearly. The quilts are stunning, there are even directions in the back (these are tough quilts, not for the faint of hand). I will never make the quilts and I enjoy their beauty in this charming book.

[Laura Salas]

Stunning art!

[Susan Waltman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful poems and beautiful quilts. Gives instructions at the end for making the quilts.

[RSter · Rating 4 out of 5]

The quilts are absolutely stunning.

[Lorena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything is so pretty!

[Angie Quantrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely gorgeous! The quilts are intricate and fabulous, while the poems are so beautiful. This book is filled with light.

[Roberta · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author spent over 400 hundred hours each constructing some of the quilts in this book. Others, equally as beautiful, did not take her quite so long. The quilts were not bed-size quilts; rather they were 31" x 19", still a monumental undertaking. Like Jennifer Chiaverini in her Elm Creek Quilt series, the author details her quilting process in "Making the Winter Lights Quilts" section at the end of the book. I guess quilters really want readers to know how much work goes into their art.

These quilts are predominantly dark, rich, saturated colors with bursts of bright light. The effect is stunning. My favorite poem was "Lights Out": I pull the covers over my head and let out a few snores for good measure . . . then snap on my flashlight and open my book. Now this is reading for pleasure. The accompanying quilt is dark browns, reds, oranges, and yellows in a dizzyingly, almost Twilight Zone spiral with the white book in the center. It feels very much like sneak-reading after you're supposed to be asleep.

I didn't find the poetry to be all that great. It's the illustrations that make this book.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

My students (who are four and five) LOVE this book. I picked it up from the library because I was seeking to incorporate more poetry into our classroom and because I was looking for resources to help support a unit we were heading into that links many wintertime celebrations based on the inclusion of light in their cultural symbols or traditions. This book was perfect to meet both goals, with the added bonus of connecting to my students’ already existing interest in textiles. The illustrations – photographs of extremely complex quilts – are what drew me to the book, but my students’ response is what made me stick with it.

The book’s inside jacket gives a helpful summary:
“During the dark months, we turn to light for comfort and to lift our spirits: a dancing candle flame, a cozy fire, a beaming flashlight. Even natural lights have a special quality in winter: the morning sun glinting on icicles, early sunsets, stars glittering in the cold, moonlight on fresh snowfall. But perhaps most heartwarming of all are the lights we use in winter celebrations.

Thousands of years ago, people didn't understand how the rotation of the earth and its orbit around the sun caused the winter months to grow darker and colder. They feared the sun would disappear altogether. In many cultures, people celebrated midwinter solstice rituals to encourage the return of the sun and its life-giving light. Such rituals were celebrated on every continent and usually involved feasting, merrymaking, gift giving, and decorating with evergreens as symbols of sustained life. They centered around fire and light of some sort, including Yule logs, bonfires, lighted trees, candles, and fireworks.

Many of our winter celebrations today incorporate these same symbols. In Scandinavian traditions, winter holidays begin with Santa Lucia's Feast Day, when eldest daughters appear in candlelit crowns. Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, is celebrated with eight days of candle lighting. The evergreen Christmas tree is well-lit to celebrate the birth of Jesus, and faralitos, paper bag lanterns, symbolically light the path for Mary and Joseph in much of the southwestern United States. Chinese New Year celebrations include fireworks to frighten off bad spirits, including Nian, the monster who threatens at the end of the old year. Kwanzaa celebrates the rich heritage, abilities, and hopes of African Americans with seven days of candle lighting.”

We’ve been reading one or two poems a day for the past few weeks, and at this point the students get excited when they see the book come out. (I’ve been hearing cries of, “Yay! Winter Lights !” It’s been remarkable.) And the book has been a vital unifying tool as we continue to think about light and the many cultural, religious, and secular ways it is a part of all people’s lives.

In the end, the poetry is mediocre, but the quilts are highly colorful and engaging.

[BreAnna (Bre'sBooks) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enchanting poems written to go along with holiday quilts, there's even a quick page in the back explaining how they made the quilts. 👍

[Kristina Befort · Rating 3 out of 5]

This particular book is filled with poems about the winter time. Winter is seen as being dark, cold, and sometimes depressing. Some of the poems in this book definitely reflect those aspects of winter, such as the one titles "Protest" in which the narrator is upset that the sun is done with the day before he is. However, some poems celebrate the good parts of winter, such as the holidays, especially in one of the poems titled "Holiday Magic." Most of the poems in this book are free verse and do not rhyme, and some are also shape poems, which gives the book a good amount of variety. The illustrations in the book are also made out of quilts, which is very different. This makes the pictures very beautiful and interesting to look at, and they definitely help to enhance the poetry.

This would be a great book to use during the winter time in the classroom. Sometimes kids can be a little down during the winter because it is often too cold for them to go out to play, and that time of year is when kids tend to start getting sick more often. This book would be a great way to show them that winter is not all that bad. The only downside to the book is that it is not very educational; it is mainly just a book filled with beautiful poems and illustrations that might be fun to look at on occasion.

[Jessy Woolsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I originally got this book because my library was missing their copy of "Pieces: A Year in Poems and Quilts." I was disappointed until I actually read this book. I absolutely loved it. The colors, arrangement and style of the quilts added a lovely feeling of the holidays to the book. To me, quilts symbolize home, cozy, etc, which also relates directly to the holidays. The work is meticulous and very intriguing. As we discussed in class, it would be best to read the poem aloud first, and then show the images to the students. The quilts could be very distracting while trying to listen at the same time. This book celebrates all culture's holidays: Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, the Chinese New Year, etc. I believe this book would be great for Kindergarten - 3rd grade. However, I believe any age could fully enjoy this book.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anna Grossnickle Hines not only wrote the poems and illustrated them but created the quilts that became part of the beautiful pages. In the backmatter, she writes about the importance of light in the deep winter months, including the holidays that are celebrated with some kind of light and ending with the light we all share, the moon. And she gives detailed instructions for creating the quilts. The quilts are exceptionally gorgeous, glowing brightly in a sea of dark, just like the candles of Chanukah and Kwanza, or the lights on the Christmas tree. There are poems for each special time and they glow too, like the one about farolitos, lines of paper bag lanterns symbolically lighting the way for Mary and Joseph. The book will delight everyone in this season where light is needed and celebrated, and might inspire quilters too.

[Katrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anna Grossnickle Hines' Winter Lights is a celebration of the lights that brighten the darkest season of the year. She's sewn fourteen quilts whose colors flicker and dance across the pages like the candles and aurora borealis of which she writes. The colors, arrangement and style of the quilts added a lovely feeling of the holidays to the book. I think it would be best to read the poem aloud first, and then show the images. The quilts could be very distracting while trying to listen at the same time. This book celebrates all culture's holidays: Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, the Chinese New Year, etc. It would be a great book to use during the holiday season, especially if you were studying winter traditions around the world.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all despite this book's appearance, this is not just a children's book! It is a wonderful holiday book, which would be a great holiday gift for anyone especially those who like poems and/or quilts, and of course children. Anna Grossnickle Hines has definitely created a treasure which focuses on the cold weather of winter, and the holidays including Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Chinese New Year, Santa Lucia and Christmas. Each delightful poem is accompanied by a spectacular quilt designed and executed by Hines specifically to illustrate the poem. The colorful quilts communicate the emotions from the quiet nights of winter to bright and festive celebrations. The last three pages focus on how Hines made the quilts. I love this book and recommend it to all.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

By far my favorite poetry collection that I found! A unique celebration of the different lights that glow in the season of winter. Hines uses poems and quilts to capture the rich colors of some winter holidays. For example, in the poem Protest, a young child begs the sun to stay because he is not tired yet. The quilt is a beautiful range of mountains in purple hues mimicking the sunset. There is even a shadow of the child, dark against the snowy mountain he stands upon.

The poems feel like they were written by early elementary children. Several of them say "we" or "me", inviting the reader to imagine a child creating the glow in each picture!

[Carly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book! This book is full of poems about winter events from every culture. Each poem's illustration is a picture of a beautiful quilt. I loved looking at the beautiful quilts and I learned about several new winter traditions from other cultures. I think students would love the illustrations and love identifying with the different traditions in the book. It would be a great book to use during the holiday season, especially if you were studying winter traditions around the world.

[Ileana Lindner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Title: Winter Lights
Author: Anna G. Hines
Grades: Kindergarten

This literature book would be a great way to explore different seasons to a kindergarten class. It would be a nice way to bring in the season of winter and have students listen to different elements of the season of winter. After reading the book, a fun activity to do would be to have the students collectively list what their favorite thing to do in winter is.

[Taylor Washington · Rating 3 out of 5]

Summary: A book of poems about the different cultural events of the winter season.

Activity: Students will be put into groups where they will be assigned a cultural event of the holiday season and they will have to do presentation on their event to present in class. Students will include information on the event, a poster board with a drawing of quilt that relates to their event, and a poem that about the event.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got to meet her this summer and I totally LOVE her she is the nicest, humblest person you will ever meet. The poetry in this book is wonderful and the illustrations are out of this world. They are all tiny quilts that she hand sewed!!! Such craftswomanship and dedication. I love this it's a great book of poetry to read on a somber day.

[Ryan Treaster · Rating 3 out of 5]

Winter lights provides children with many different poems involving christmas and things that deal with christmas. This book really helps children understand poetry.

Reading Level- Early
Curricular Use- Independent Read
Literary Elements- shows good use of rhyme and how to incorporate it in poems

[Sally Ashmore · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never seen quilts in this light before. The pictures are wonderful, and I'm so glad the grocery store had this in their bargain bin. The photography and quilting skills help me appreciate art in all it's forms. I plan on reading this book to any children I care for.

Personally not a fan of the poetry, but I don't hold that against the book.