The Magic Tapestry

The Magic Tapestry Retold and illustrated by Demi

Grades K-3

Three stars

            Long ago there lived a poor weaver and her three sons.  One day, she was inspired and started working on a new tapestry that took her three years to make.  After she finished it she laid it out and it blew away in the wind.  She asked her three sons to retrieve it for her, and the youngest one went through terrifying obstacles to win back his mother’s tapestry stolen by fairies.

            This book was not one of my favorites because the two older sons were not loyal to their mother.  When they went to retrieve the tapestry they took the box of jewels instead of going through fire and ice to get to the tapestry.  It was disappointing to me.  I also did not care for the ending.  The young son catches the eye of one of the fairies, and when he takes it to his mother the fairy is on/in the tapestry.  Then the tapestry came to life and the son and the mother were also in the tapestry.  It was an odd ending to the story.  But I did like the setup of the book with the text in the bottom left or right corner and the pictures outlined with a solid background and always one little item coming out of the border.  It is simple yet beautiful. 

            The culture of the Chinese really comes out in this book.  The author tells on the back of the book that she stumbled upon the story when she was researching Chinese fabrics and the looms they were woven on.  “The Chinese, who invented the loom, believed that the weaving of two threads symbolized the weaving of heaven and earth,” Demi explains.  And this story reflects the significance of that metaphor in the Chinese culture.  This book would be essential in a lesson on Ancient Chinese cultures in Social Studies.  It could also be used in an art class and they were going to make tapestries.