What You Need To Be Warm is written by the highly praised Neil Gaiman, who is also a Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR----a working group of the United Nations that protects people who are forced to leave their homes due to conflict and persecution. Gaiman wrote the poem after asking for and receiving thoughts about how it feels to be safe and warm from people on the internet.
The poem is illustrated by thirteen superb artists who each design pictures for the pages of the poem. Included in the back material is Notes from the Artists that give the reader very interesting information as to why and how they drew the pictures that they did.
Warmth and safety are shown to be akin to a blanket, a smile, a bed, a boiling kettle, and the music of an iron radiator coming alive. However, as the poem’s words and illustrations make very clear, many people must leave home “while food and friends, a bed, even a blanket become just memories.”
The black, white, and orange color-scheme pops out the important message. The book is well designed for readers 6-9 years of age and up.
What You Need to be Warm by Neil Gaiman with a host of talented illustrators is an important book with a message for the whole world, namely, one that says clearly and loudly: “You have the right to be here.” (Quill Tree Books/Harper Collins) 2023.
The Children’s Bookshelf is a production of WCMU. Links to the podcast and the Activity Questions can be found at Children’s Bookshelf dot org.
Activity Questions for What You Need To Be Warm
This book speaks a lot about being warm and the things or situations that make one feel warmth. Reread the poem again and locate these things and situations. Then make a detailed list of all the things and situations that allow you to feel warmth such as clothes, toys, food, music, celebrations, family-members, and pets.
Which illustration is your favorite? Why? Then draw your own picture of that illustration by adding your own details and colors.
There is a lot of movement in this book. Go to a comfortable room where you can move as if you are the things that are moving: a flame in a fireplace, a person eating a chocolate bar, water boiling in a kettle, cold pieces of frost hiding in the ground, a child snuggling up with a blanket, a child walking sadly away from her home and a child playing soccer outside in a place that he has a right to be!
