Luka's Quilt
In her second book, Guback's ( The Carolers ) storytelling proves as affable as her bright, intricate cut-paper collages. Tutu ("That's Hawaiian for grandmother") decides to make her granddaughter Luka a special flower-garden quilt. But the traditional two-color Island quilt that Tutu crafts is a far cry from the multicolored quilt Luka has imagined. When Luka complains, "Tutu's eyes got watery, and she quietly turned and went to her room and shut the door." For days afterward, says Luka, "We had nothing to say to each other." At the Lei Day celebration, however, Tutu thinks of a compromise: a rainbow-hued fabric lei to place atop the green-and-white quilt. Together Tutu and Luka sew it, mending their wounds, too. The anticipation, disappointment and hurt ring true, while the resolution is vaguely unsettling: Luka never apologizes, and it is Tutu who must go the extra mile. Nonetheless, like good, real-life relationships, theirs is a work-in-progress, tender and dearly worth the effort. Ages 4-up.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.