This fall, HarperCollins Children’s Books imprint Quill Tree Books will publish What You Need to Be Warm, a picture book highlighting displacement, written by author and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Goodwill Ambassador Neil Gaiman and illustrated by various artists.
In 2019 Gaiman asked his Twitter followers, “What reminds you of warmth?” Sourcing material from the responses, Gaiman composed a poem in aid of the UNHCR’s 2019 winter appeal, which has now been transformed into a picture book. What You Need to Be Warm explores flight from conflict by spotlighting the objects and memories that offer hope during trying times.
The picture book touts a list of 13 illustrators, including Oliver Jeffers for the book’s cover, Benji Davies, Yuliya Gwilym, Chris Riddell, and many more.
“I am thrilled that the words originating from a single tweet back in 2019 will now become pages in a book, imagined through the eyes of 13 wonderful artists,” Gaiman said in a statement. “I hope that the ideas and memories collected and woven into this poem and the beautiful images they’ve inspired will be shared far and wide, as the humanitarian message is even more urgent today than it was when I typed that original tweet.”
What You Need to Be Warm publishes on October 31 in the U.S. and October 26 with Bloomsbury in the U.K. Gaiman will be donating his royalties from the book to the UNHCR.
