The Sky Was My Blanket: A Young Man’s Journey Across Wartime Europe

The final work from celebrated Caldecott Award-winning illustrator Uri Shulevitz, this gripping and revealing true story follows a young Polish exile fighting to survive in war-torn Europe.

Born in the tumult of World War I, a young Jewish boy named Yehiel Szulewicz chafes at the borders of his hometown of Żyrardów, Poland, and at the rules set in place by his restrictive parents. Brimming with a desire for true adventure, he leaves home at fifteen-and-a-half years old to seek his future elsewhere. Little does Yehiel know, he’ll never see his parents again.

His journey takes him beyond Polish borders, to Austria, Croatia, France, and Spain. With no money and no ID papers, he often sleeps under the stars, with only the sky as his blanket. But even wayfaring Yehiel can’t outrun the evil spreading across Europe in the years leading up to World War II. As the fascists and Nazis rise to power, Yehiel soon finds himself a member of the Spanish Republican Army and then the Jewish Resistance in Vichy France, fighting for freedom, his friends, and his very life.

Inspired by the true story of Uri Shulevitz’s uncle and stunningly illustrated by the author, The Sky Was My Blanket is a unique and riveting account of one man’s courage and resilience amidst one of the darkest periods in global history.

Don’t miss Uri Shulevitz’s acclaimed memoir, Chance: Escape from the Holocaust: Memories of a Refugee Childhood, which bestselling author Elizabeth Wein called ＂harrowing, engaging and utterly honest＂ (New York Times Book Review).

Uri Shulevitz has won the Caldecott Medal for The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship, written by Arthur Ransome, and three Caldecott Honors for The Treasure, Snow, and How I Learned Geography. His other books include Chance: Escape from the Holocaust: Memories of a Refugee Childhood, One Monday Morning, Dawn, So Sleepy Story, and the instructional guide Writing with Pictures: How to Write and Illustrate Children’s Books. He lives in New York City.