Synopses & Reviews
Cartwheel moves to a new country with her auntie, and everything is strange: the animals, the plants — even the wind. An old blanket gives Cartwheel comfort when she's sad — and a new blanket just might change her world.
This multicultural story of friendship is about leaving home, moving to a foreign and strange place, and finding a new friend. It's a story for all who have experienced change. Irena Kobald's poetic text, paired with Kate Greenaway medalist Freya Blackwood's powerful paintings, renders an emotional and heart-warming story about two children from diverse backgrounds coming together to become new friends.
Review
"With its bold visual metaphors, My Two Blankets ingeniously captures a child's efforts to weave the old with the new." New York Times Book Review
Synopsis
Moving is hard — but friends make it easier.
In this stunning multicultural picture book illustrated by Kate Greenaway Medalist Freya Blackwood, a young girl has moved to a new country with her auntie, and misses all she's ever known. Everything in her new country feels so strange: the animals, the plants — even the wind. To comfort herself, she creates a safe place under her old blanket, which is made out of memories, thoughts, and reminders of home. After meeting a new friend in the park, the girl begins to weave a new blanket — one made of friendship, new words, and a renewed sense of belonging. It's very different from the old blanket, but it eventually becomes just as warm and familiar — and one to share with her new friend.
Fans of Tricia Tusa, Helen Oxenbury, Marla Frazee, and Matt Phelan will delight in reading this warm story alongside Blackwood's artwork.
About the Author
Irena Kobald is multi-lingual Austrian immigrant to Australia, who teaches aboriginal children in Australian outback communities (the closest shop is 250 kms away!). The children she teaches use English as a fifth language (many speak several Aboriginal languages).
Freya Blackwood grew up in Orange in New South Wales, Australia. As the daughter of a painter and an architect, she was encouraged to draw from a young age, and produced many illustrated books as a child. She earned a design degree (Visual Communications) at the University of Technology, Sydney and then worked for several years in the film industry in Sydney and Wellington, New Zealand. Many of her books have been translated into other languages and can be read by people all over the world. She now lives back in Orange, New South Wales, Australia with her divine daughter Ivy, their rather naughty whippet Pivot, and four noisy chickens.