Review: The Sky Was My Blanket


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

written and illustrated by Uri Shulevitz

Farrar Straus Giroux, 2025

Category: Middle Grade
Reviewer: Judy Ehrenstein
 

Employing a conversational, first-person narrative, the late author and illustrator Uri Shulevitz writes in the voice of his uncle, Henri, whom he met after both survived World War II. Born Yehiel Szulewicz in early 20th century Poland, Szulewicz showed early on that he was curious about the world beyond his Polish village and wouldn’t let obstacles get in his way of seeking adventure. Striking out from home at 15 ½ years old, thinking he would walk to the Holy Land, he traveled through Poland, much of central and southern Europe, eventually landing in Spain and joining the fight against Franco, all the while either staying with fellow Jews and earning small amounts of money to help him get by, or sleeping outside, “with the sky as my blanket”. When money or official papers were lacking, Szulewizc used connections, cunning, and pure luck, the last being something that saved him time and time again. While arrested and released numerous times, changing names and nationalities allowed him to survive World War II without deportation to a concentration camp. Settling with his wife and family in post-war Paris, his only surviving family members, whose own tale of survival was told by Shulevitz in Chance: Escape From the Holocaust (2020) moved in with him. Working as a tailor, Yehiel Szulewicz, now Henri Shulevitz, eventually turned to art in his later years.

As the number of people who lived through WWII dwindles, it’s important for as many stories as possible to be told for future generations. While many of the frustrations, deprivations, and horrors have been softened in this book, the messages of resilience and klal yisrael ring loud and clear. Intricate pen and ink illustrations along with some photographs including of Szulewicz’s own work, work well with the short chapters and tone.

Szulewicz was raised in an observant home and rebelled, but he held a strong connection to the wider Jewish community, both in his leaning on them for housing and jobs wherever he went and more importantly, his efforts with Resistance groups to keep himself and his family safe, All readers, Jewish and not, will be able to follow the stories as they contain the universal themes of seeking independence and making a mark on the world, while also highlighting the life of a resilient Jew during WWII.

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Reviewer Judy Ehrenstein is a children's librarian in Maryland. She is co-editor of the children's and teen book reviews for AJL News and Reviews, served on the Sydney Taylor Book Awards committe, and is currently on the AJL Holiday Highlights committee.

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