Emily’s grandma (oma) is not happy when she has to move from her home on Maple Street to a retirement home. She misses cooking, sleeping in her own bed, and seeing her neighbour. At their own home, helping her mother sort through Oma’s lifetime belongings, Emily comes up with an idea to bring Maple Street to Oma in her new home.

Paulette Bourgeois, author of more than 40 books for children, including the Franklin the Turtle picture book series, joins Barbara Smucker (Selina and the Bear Paw Quilt) and Eleanor Coerr (The Josefina Story Quilt) in making a Canadian contribution to quilt-themed picture-book literature.

Oma’s Quilt includes the elements of warmth, comfort, and continuity traditional to a quilt story. However, Bourgeois also adds a couple of twists. This quilt, rather than being the gift of a gentle grandmother to her granddaughter, is a gentle granddaughter’s gift to an oma cranky enough to dismiss her fellow retirees as nincompoops.

Using mixed media, illustrator Stéphane Jorisch partners effectively with Bourgeois. His cover art introduces Emily’s simplicity, Oma’s complexity, and a quilt of many colours. His Maple Street sketch, presented in sepia tones on the book’s end papers, conveys nostalgia. His colourful, cartoon-tinged illustrations balance cleverness and sensitivity.

Oma’s Quilt tackles the themes of attachment, change, resistance, love, and adjustment. While adults are likely to find the ending simplistic, it will satisfy young children.