Review by Booklist Review
During the UN Refugee Agency's fundraising for Syrian refugees as cold weather approached in 2019, Gaiman (a goodwill ambassador for the agency) took to social media to request impressions and memories of warmth. Thousands responded, and he wove the recurring themes into a poem, here turned into a picture book. Some ideas of warmth are simple and familiar: knitted blankets, crackling fires, steaming baked potatoes. Others are more beautifully specific: an infant asleep between parents, loved ones' smiles, tinking radiators. The cozy atmosphere chills with depictions of fleeing families making long treks, and warmth becomes a distant memory until something like a simple scarf is held out as a reassurance that all are cared for, that everyone has "the right to be here." The text is spare and evocative, the descriptions both reassuring and realistic. Twelve artists fill spreads with striking grayscale illustrations punctuated by orange highlights, and in the endnotes they expand on their visual interpretation of each verse. A moving meditation on what it means to be safe and warm in a difficult world.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Aiming to raise money to help refugees caught in the cold of winter, Newbery Medalist and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees ambassador Gaiman crowdsourced memories of warmth online, weaving them into an evocative poem that speaks to experiences of comfort. The resultant work is illustrated in this volume by 13 collaborators, some emigres themselves, in spreads that share a grayscale palette accented with fiery orange. Accompanying lines about garments ("Wear a scarf./ Wear a coat./ Wear a sweater./ Wear socks"), Beth Suzanna draws adults helping a child into cozy clothes. Marie-Alice Harel imagines a mound of sleeping creatures gathered around a dove and encircled by a slumbering dragon ("An infant as/ she sleeps between us./ A tumble of dogs,/ a kindle of cats"), while Bagram Ibatouilline's stark, photorealistic image shows a family huddled by a fire in a desert, and Benji Davies's inky fantasy forefronts a child crossing the sea in a boat guarded by two mermaids. Envisioning warmth as both a baked potato and a blanket knit by a loved one, the thoughtful free verse lines build to a powerful final expression: "You have the right to be here." Figures are depicted with a variety of skin tones. Ages 4--8. (Oct.)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 4--The plight of refugees in the cold winter of 2019 led Gaiman to solicit responses from his followers on social media about what it means to be warm. Weaving threads together from these suggestions, he created a lyrical free verse poem that beautifully captures warmth on many levels that will resonate and challenge readers. Warmth is "a baked potato," "trust," or even a stranger in a dark place holding out a "badly knitted scarf." Each spread, illustrated in muted tones of black, gray, white, and orange, captures the sentiment of the poem and evoke the challenging circumstances refugees face, and the simple acts or moments that can provide warmth. Many artists contributed their work, and each has a statement at the end detailing their response to the poem and the choices they made with their illustrations. Young artists could be given the same challenge to add their vision of warmth based on the text, and young poets could be asked to continue the poem with their own ideas. VERDICT Highly recommended. Useful in art or language arts classes, this title would also serve as a gentle but challenging, introduction to social studies or current events units on the contemporary refugee crisis or migration throughout history.--John Scott
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Review by Horn Book Review
Gaiman, who serves as a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency, used social media to ask people about their memories of being warm, to draw attention to -- and raise money for -- those unhoused or displaced due to violent conflict. He wove respondents' words into the free-verse poem that is this compelling picture book's text. The twelve loose stanzas are vivid and specific with relatable details. Each is interpreted by a different artist (with fascinating explanatory notes from the illustrators appended), including Yuliya Gwilym, Petr Horaek, Oliver Jeffers, and Nadine Kaadan. What makes us warm? Physical things like blankets, radiators, fireplaces, coats and gloves, and hot cocoa, as well as more abstract concepts such as a smile, memories, safety, or a kind word. The double-page spreads create entire scenes that expand both the context and the meaning of the lines -- all in only three colors: shades of black, white, and orange. It's an unusual palette; the orange is especially effective in conveying heat and warmth, and the grayscale provides a unifying thread across the various artistic styles. Midway, the illustrations feature several scenes of refugees and migrants, but the hopeful conclusion depicts children at play and at home with the words, "You have the right to be here." One other intriguing element is the graphic look of the text, with spacing that varies and key words in a larger font size -- creating another telegraphic poem-within-a-poem. Sylvia VardellNovember/December 2023 p.94 (c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Gaiman's free-verse meditation on coming in from, or at least temporarily fending off, the cold is accompanied by artwork from 13 illustrators. An ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the author put out a social media appeal in 2019 asking people about their memories of warmth; the result is this picture book, whose proceeds will go to the UNHCR. For many refugees and other displaced persons, Gaiman writes, "food and friends, / home, a bed, even a blanket, / become just memories." Here he gathers images that signify warmth, from waking in a bed "burrowed beneath blankets / and comforters" to simply holding a baked potato or being offered a scarf. Using palettes limited to black and the warm orange in which most of the text is printed, an international slate of illustrators give these images visual form, and 12 of the 13 add comments about their intentions or responses. The war in Ukraine is on the minds of Pam Smy and Bagram Ibatoulline, while Majid Adin recalls his time as a refugee in France's "Calais jungle" camp. "You have the right to be here," the poet concludes, which may give some comfort to those facing the cold winds of public opinion in too many of the places where refugees fetch up. The characters depicted are diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.) No substitute for blankets or shelter, but perhaps a way of securing some warmth for those in need. (Picture book. 6-9) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
