By: Irena Kobald and Freya Blackwood
My Two Blankets is a wonderful picturebook published by Little Hare Books in 2014. I first read the book in 2018 when I was at the International Youth Library in Munich, doing my research on the empowering nature of the selected books in White Ravens Lists. This book was in 2015’s List, and I do find this picturebook empowering. So let’s see how it all works.
To begin with, this is the story of a teenage girl who lives with her Auntie. Her Auntie calls her Cartwheel, and I believe that’s because she likes doing cartwheel, but we do not get her real name. On the very first page we read: “Auntie used to call me Cartwheel. Then came the war and Auntie didn’t call me Cartwheel any more” (n.p).
The illustration, however, shows us Cartwheel doing cartwheels in a rural setting with small cottages, children, and animals in the background. Cartwheel and the whole setting have warm colors, and this shows how happy and warm everything is.
Due to the war, they are forced to leave their homeland. The utmost sadness and fury conveyed to us as readers is very delicate, and is when the narrator says, her Auntie has stopped calling her “Cartwheel.” It’s as if Auntie is not herself anymore, and the child feels this change too. So they enter a new urban area with lots of people, trains, smoke, cars, and tall buildings. The interesting thing in the illustrations here is that Cartwheel and her Auntie have preserved their warm colors, and accordingly, they do make a contrast in the cold and cray colors of the city.
Cartwheel complains that she doesn’t understand a word people say and that she feels like a stranger there, and her only comfort is her own blanket she has taken from her homeland. She wraps herself in the blanket every night and tries to remember the warm atmosphere back home. The illustrator has also done a magnificent job of portraying the blanket with ethnic objects and symbols, all in warm colors conveying the rural setting which is familiar to Cartwheel.
The main story actually starts when one day she and her Auntie go to a park. There, they see another girl the same age as Cartwheel who smiles and waves at her. At first Cartwheel is afraid because she doesn’t understand a word, the girl says, and is shy and just leaves. However, when they meet once again after several days, the girl tries to teach the language to Cartwheel, and little by little, Cartwheel starts to learn and get familiar with the sounds and words. She collects the new words she learns from her friend one by one and starts making a second blanket, this time in blue and gray, the colors of the new city. So now she has two blankets and she doesn’t feel sad anymore.
The final illustration of the book is when we see both girls doing cartwheel in the park. Both are happy and gay, and we can also spot Auntie in the back talking with another native woman.
The picturebook ends with this final message: “And I know that, no matter which blanket I use, I will always be me” (n.p.).
In my opinion, the whole book is empowering, in that it advocates the value and effectiveness of friendship among children. Cartwheel changes when the girl smiles at her, and little by little, she feels confident enough to adopt the new culture and language. Being ready to get integrated is also as important as the process itself; Cartwheel doesn’t feel biased about her culture and is willing to learn new things. Finally, the last very sentence is just as noteworthy, because although Cartwheel has by now learned the new language and has successfully integrated into the new society, she hasn’t forgotten her identity. The title of the picturebook also confirms this very idea: “My Two Blankets,” she doesn’t throw her old blanket away or stick to it either. She makes a second one and uses both of them. Her identity is of super importance, and this adopted language and culture add depth and richness to her personality as a young adult. This is a very delicate issue which is from time to time neglected or underestimated.
Altogether, this book is useful for making the process of integration into the new society easier, and one has to follow Irena Kobald’s final words in the book’s dedication: “Never give up; make your own blanket grow!”
Dr. Neda Farnia
May 2025
