This is a beautiful story of a Reverend and his family who are sent to revive an old church in Detroit, The narrator, Jonathan, is unhappy about the move, but soon discovers the reason he and his family were went to this new place and their impact on others in the community. ( )

This story was very heart warming. A family who is rooted in their own religion is open to another's faith. The family is very close and works together to make the best of a bad luck situation. This book is a great holiday themed book exploring both Christianity and the Jewish faith.

Curricular connection: Science - A study of snowflakes and crystals could be conducted.

Writing - Using some of the very descriptive language in the book about the weather would be a good way to kick off writing of descriptive sentences. You could begin with talking about the who, what, where, when, why, how parts of the sentences from the book. Then have students describe a hot day making sure they use words to describe the who, what, where, when, why and how.

Jonathan Jefferson Weeks was one unhappy boy: uprooted from his home in Memphis, he had moved, together with his Baptist minister father, and the rest of the family, to Detroit. His father's new church was old and dilapidated, with few people attending services, and the parsonage was right next door, allowing everyone in the neighborhood to identify Jonathan as a PK (preacher's kid). Why, he wondered, had they come here? What purpose could it serve, and what meaning did it have? Pitching in, despite his questions, Jonathan helped in the family and community effort to restore the church, looking forward to the day of the Christmas pageant. But when a blizzard left the church's sacristy wall, where a beautiful wall painting had been commissioned, terribly damaged, all of Jonathan's doubts came flooding back. If God truly did have a purpose, in bringing the Weeks to Detroit, why had he sent the blizzard? The answer to that question, for Jonathan, came in a most unexpected way, with the beautifully embroidered cloth he and his father bought, to cover the damaged wall, and the miraculous reunion it brought about, between two people cruelly parted, years before...

As is so often the case with Patricia Polacco's books, I found myself weeping, while reading Christmas Tapestry, which so perfectly captured so many ideas and feelings that were central to my own childhood. Like Jonathan, I too was a "PK," and well do I remember that feeling of being set apart, of feeling peculiarly watched, and judged, by the community. I also remember the earnest questions about the Divine which I directed to my father, who, like Rev. Weeks, did his best to answer and comfort me. Familiar, too, was the involvement here, not just with the church congregation, but the wider community (my father having served on many ecumenical councils).

In short, this was a book that spoke to me on a very personal level. But it was also a book that told a very moving story, in its own right, about two Holocaust survivors who find one another, after many years, through the intervention of the Weeks, and their church. I was reminded of a different reunion - that between Charlie and his long-lost lady love, in Sydney Taylor's All-of-a-Kind Family - and the association was a welcome one. I think that, even for readers who don't believe that there is any such thing as God, or a divine force guiding events, this would be a moving story. After all, we don't need to share the beliefs of others, to be moved by how they give them meaning, strength and joy. And that, in the end, is the special genius of this book: Patricia Polacco has brilliantly captured how faith does give joy, and how generosity and community, even with people of different faiths, is particularly appropriate at Christmas. Just a joy to read! ( )

A boy and his family move from Memphis to Detroit. His dad is a pastor at a new church and the tapestry is stolen and they buy another one. The tapestry they buy has historical significance because an old lady who lives in the community made it years ago. ( )

This is a very touching story of providential reunion following decades of separation. The story leads slowly and almost unnoticed up toward a dawning realization and then a both stunning and magnificent climax. Just passing by it here, I had to stop and leave a quick review. While most of my best books get 5 stars, this one gets 6. Well, maybe not quite 6, but no less than 5.5! ( )