Ann Rinaldi is one of my favorite young adult/older elementary school writers for historical fiction. This story I read years ago and I loved how the character was stuck in between the Hatfield and McCoy feud. Fanny sees how hate can and feuding only beget more blood being shed.

The book's protagonist is Fanny McCoy, whose sister Alifair was murdered by Ellison Mounts, one of the hated Hatfields. Throughout the story, Fanny holds within her the terrible secret that Mounts, who was hanged for Alifair's murder, was not actually the perpetrator. To prevent still more bloodshed between the Hatfields and McCoys, Fanny holds onto the story and instead tries to be a peacemaker between the two families. The feud was a complicated affair, but Rinaldi does a fine job helping young adults to make sense of it. The Coffin Quilt can be used in a language arts class to give middle-schoolers some insight into what "local color" literature looks like (if that sort of thing is still taught).

A well-crafted fictional account of the family feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys in late nineteenth century America, told from the perspective of the youngest McCoy daughter Fanny.

I really took to Fanny's narrative, which reminded me a lot of Scout in To Kill A Mockingbird ('I stood around the edges and watched and they paid me no nevermind'), and Ann Rinaldi's evocative storytelling shapes the historical names and events into believable characters and personal tragedy. I also love the colloquial phrases she employs, like 'You look like the hind wheels of bad luck' and 'nervous as an ugly girl at a box-supper auction', which add local flavour and humour to an otherwise dark tale.

Fanny's sister Roseanna, who is said to have kicked off the feud by eloping with a Hatfield, takes to crafting the 'coffin quilt' of the title, with all the family names stitched onto coffins around the border, to be moved into the centre when somebody dies. A suitably morbid symbol for a beleaguered family. ( )

The title made me pick this book up. I really enjoyed it. ( )

I couldn't get into this book. Being a big fan of Ann Rinaldi, I tried numerous times to read it and I was never able to finish. Being thee feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys I expected more action and suspense. This novel was more centered on relationships and emotional and daily struggles. While it was good at showing the time period and mindset of these people it was not one of Ann Rinaldi's best books. ( )