A book about breaking cultural barriers and finding comfort in a new identity, with the help of a friend made along the way.
What is this story about?
A girl named Cartwheel moves to a new country, as her country is being affected by war. She befriends a young girl who helps Cartwheel make sense of this new place and merge her identity: culture, language, experiences, with this new culture she is experiencing. Cartwheel learns to accept and find comfort in a new, blended identity.
Meet the Author:
Irena Kobald
Irena Kobald is a multilingual Austrian immigrant, currently living in Australia. She teaches aboriginal children in Australian outback communities. This is Irena's debut picture book, inspired by her daughter's friendship with a Sudanese child. To find more books by Irena, visit the page: https://www.facebook.com/booksbyirena/.
Meet the Illustrator:
Freya Blackwood
Freya Blackwood is an award-winning children's book author. She is the winner of the 2010 Kate Greenaway Award for Harry and Hopper. Before she was an illustrator, she was a special effects artist, mostly known for her work on The Lord of the Rings. Freya lives in Australia with her daughter. Visit her website: https://www.freyablackwood.com.au/ to explore more of her work!
My Critique/Review:
I really enjoyed reading this story as it was so inspirational, relatable, and inspiring for readers. It really gave readers a glimpse into a refugee's life and created a sense of understanding and empathy. I would consider this book a good children's book because it is relatable to readers, either who have experienced moving to a new place, know of someone else who has, or has seen it in books, the news, or other media sources. Even if one has not experienced this personally, all students have experienced a sense of loneliness or struggling to fit in, which this book touches on. Furthermore, this book incorporates a good message and encourages readers to be kind and inclusive, which demonstrate a good book to me. Overall, this book makes me want to be a better person.
Thoughts:
Some common themes I noticed when reading this book is the theme of friendship, diversity, and integration. Cartwheel has to learn how to live in a culture that is so different from her own. She struggles with the shock of how different it is by saying: "We came to this country to be safe. Everything was strange. The people were strange. The food was strange. The animals and the plants were strange. Even the wind felt strange" (Kobald, 2014, pg. 3-4). At first, Cartwheel struggles with this change as we see her retreat to her old blanket, which is a metaphor for her first language and the comfort she finds at home, as everything is "normal" and safe (Kobald, 2014, pg. 8). Furthermore, Cartwheel is challenged by trying to fit into this new society. She befriends a young girl who guides her and supports her as she juggles the uncertainty and shock of this new culture. On page 19-20, Cartwheel describes, "The next time I saw the girl, she brought some words for me. She made me say them over and over" (Kobald, 2014). She goes on to talk about how the young girl continued to teach her new words, until Cartwheel was able to learn this new language, known as English. As Cartwheel begins to learn and accept this new language, we see integration play a role. Cartwheel is "weaving a new blanket" (Kobald, 2014, pg. 24), as she is beginning to integrate this new language and new culture into her current identity.
The illustrations of this book are created from the medium: watercolors and oil paints. I love how on each page, Cartwheel is the main figure and stands out on the page. This is done by representing her in orange clothing, while everyone else is in duller colors. Furthermore, I love how over time as Cartwheel's identity starts to change, she never changes. She is represented in the same clothing from the beginning to the end of the book, showing that even though she is integrating into this new culture, she is not forgetting her original beliefs and cultural aspects. The illustrations in this book really help bring the author's writing to life. On page 5-6, the illustrator represents the author's words: "When I went out, it was like standing under a waterfall of strange sounds" (Kobald, 2014). She depicts this with a jumble of scribbles all around Cartwheel, which can be seen in the image below. This allows the reader to imagine the jumble of unfamiliar sounds that Cartwheel is hearing and try to understand how she must feel. Lastly, I love the way the illustrator depicts Cartwheel's blankets. Her first blanket is all different shades of orange with images of her "home" culture. However, once Cartwheel begins to learn and embrace this new culture and language, her blanket begins to change and incorporates symbols and shapes of this new language, as well as, changing to be a blueish color. This symbolizes Cartwheel's identity as a mix between her original culture and this new culture she has started to integrate into.
After researching the author, Irena Kobald, I have come to realize the aspect of #ownvoice portrayed in this book. Irena is an Austrian immigrant and understands what is it like to immigrate to a new, foreign place. Irena is writing from her own perspective, understanding firsthand, the struggles and discomfort of a new place. By the author using #ownvoice in this book, it allows the reader to feel a deeper connection to the story and begin to understand the real-life feelings that come with moving to a new place.
When thinking about this books use in the classroom, I think there are a lot of ways that it could be incorporated. One could focus on the ideas of friendship, diversity, feeling uncomfortable or lonely, or integration and modifying your views, for example. One way I would include this book is by reading it to students and discussing Cartwheel's feelings throughout the book. I think this would force students to look at the situation from Cartwheel's perspective to try and understand her feelings. I think this would be a great time to talk about the author and how her experiences affect the perspective of this book. Then, I could have students write a story about a time they may have felt lonely or left out and how they overcame it. Did a friend, parent, teacher help them? This could then turn into a discussion about when we are struggling or see a friend struggling, it is important to let someone know, be kind, and understanding to our friend. As a class, we could brainstorm ways that we could help our friends who are struggling in certain situations, just as the little girl helped Cartwheel learn a new language.
Making Connections:
After reading the article, "Nobody Spoke Like I Did": Picture Books, Critical Literacy, and Global Contexts, I was able to connect my thinking about the book, My Two Blankets, to the article's. This article breaks down the role of global and critical literacy when reading books. It focuses on the books illustrations to allow students to better develop this critical lens. One image the article discusses is the image that I talked about above. In this image, the reader sees Cartwheel and her aunt in a crowd of people, being bombarded with strange and unfamiliar sounds. The article further discusses the author's choice of making Cartwheel and her aunt appear very small on the page. The article proposes that they "are very small in comparison with the large crowd and are quite a long distance from the viewer, further suggesting isolation and loneliness" (Callow, 2017, pg. 234). It then goes on to state that the size and placement of characters may influence the readers interpretation of power. I had not thought about power when first looking at the picture, but now however, I can see the discussion of power in this picture, as the two biggest characters on the page, are two white men wearing suits, which come across to me as being powerful.
Useful Links:
Read aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqnBRiTdZkM
Book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G29EzMkL-yA
Teaching Resources: https://childrenslibrarylady.com/two-blankets/
Teaching Resources: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/321303754652603829/?autologin=true&nic=1
Teaching Resources: https://www.teachingbooks.net/tb.cgi?tid=43851
Books for Developing Critical Literacy and Themes of Diversity from the article:
1. The Little Refugee by Anh Do and Suzanne Do
2. Mirror by Jeannie Baker
3. The Treasure Box by Margaret Wild
4. The Arrival by Shaun Tan
Sources:
Callow, J. (2017). "Nobody Spoke Like I Did": Picture Books, Critical Literacy, and Global Contexts. The Reading Teacher, 71 (2), pp. 231-237.
Freya Blackwood. Photo of Illustrator Freya Blackwood. Reprinted from COPYRIGHTAGENCY Reading Australia, 2019. Retrieved from
Irena Kobald. Photo of Author Irena Kobald. Reprinted from SPEAKERSINK, 2019. Retrieved from https://www.speakers-ink.com.au/speakers/irena-kobald
Kobald, I. (2014). My Two Blankets. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.