Peaceful Pieces

Peaceful Pieces

Author: Anna Grossnickle Hines

Themes: Peace
Genre: Poetry
Grades: 1st-4th grades

Synopsis: This book was written over a period of months and inspired by all of Anna's friends. The themes of this book explore peace, understanding, tolerance, and friendship. This books shows all different perspectives, for instance the perspective of a child whose father came back from war a changed man. Children will be fascinated by the illustrations showing the intricate stitching, bold colors, and poignant imagery. This book is a collection of poems with the meaning of peace. The illustrations by Anna are incredible in that all of the illustrations are actually made of homemade quilts. Quilts representing peace at home, to peace on the world wide scale, to peace in oneself. Pondering the meaning of peace and all of its nature this book compels us to discover and try to find peace ourselves.
This book provides children with the exposure to poems while also helping to teach them about the meaning of peace. I liked this book because it provided great pictures to go along with the story, which are actually the quilts that the author and her friends made to go along with the poems in the book.

Pre-reading activity: Discuss with the students about poems. Give a list of popular children's books and ask students if they have ever read a poem before, and discuss what makes a poem different from a standard story.

Post Reading Activity: After reading the book, have students start writing their own poems. When their poems are finished have students each write their poems on a small square piece of paper and put together a quilt on a way either inside the classroom or outside of the classroom.

About the Author: Anna Grossnickle Hines started drawing as a young girl, and as early as first grade was getting recognized for her drawings by her teachers. She recalls telling her mother that she wanted to write children’s books when she grew up, and her mother telling her that if that is what she wanted to do then she should do it. As she grew older she loved to read and draw, and would occasionally write, but would normally rip it up before anyone could read it. Her parents and teachers encouraged her, but were not able to help her with making a book. In college her professors would tell her that she had more potential than drawing pictures and that she needed to get that out of her system. So after three years of college and having taken basic art classes, children’s literature class and a child care class, she left school to study on her own. She took out books from the library and read many of them to the children at the daycare where she worked. She wrote books, starting with poetry, but did not know where to send them to, and it wasn’t for another eight years before she learned where she should send her books to. At this time she had two daughters and had been divorced. She decided to teach third grade for three years. At this time she had received hundreds of rejection letters. But on November 13^th, 1981, her luck changed, and she received her first acceptance letter. A year later she sold another book, and from then on started selling more and more. Anna says that children fascinate her, how they think, what they do on a daily basis, and their interactions with the world around them.

Grossnickle, A. (2011). Peaceful Pieces. NY: Henry Holt and Co. Grades 1-4.