Sewing the Rainbow: A Story about Gilbert Baker is good introduction for older children. Baker was a young man who lived in a gray world, especially after his art supplies and drawings were taken from him. He was a young man that was drafted, but who would not shoot a gun no matter what names he was called. And he was a man who knew how to put his glittery, wonderful, colorful self out there. And how to represent the community he was part of.
Gayle E. Pitman is probably now my go-to author for books on the GLBTQ community. And with Holly Clifton-Brown adding their own glittery self to the illustrations, Sewing the Rainbow was the book I need. It is calm and brought me down from all the wonderful books on the queer community, but it also kept me wanting more. A movement like Gay rights has a history, but so do the symbols that help represent it. And Pitman tells us how the Rainbow Flag came to mean a safe space for all of us.
And Clifton-Brown’s bright, detailed illustrations move the story along. It supports and highlights the moments you need from the text. We see the colors of Baker, but also the gray that happens. We see the love of his grandmother, and we see how in the end how Baker put a lot of time and effort into a simple thing.
The note to parents/caregivers is a must read as well. This is great for classrooms and personal library. This is a good book that should be read more than once to get the most out of it.
