Published by Eerdmans Books for Young Readers on February 18, 2025
Genres: Children's
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A moving refugee story, told through the language of knitting.
Knit one. Purl one. Oh no—there goes another stitch: and a family of mice watches its nest unravel. They flee across the water, past a fire-breathing dragon, toward the unknown. At last the family lands in a place where they can gather the strings of their past and their present together. With the help of some new friends, they can knit a new life.
Illustrated with colored-pencil drawings and plenty of yarn, this poetic book is a gentle way to discuss migration and displacement with children. Thread by Thread expresses both the pain of losing a home—and the joy of creating a new place to belong.
At the end of 2023, the UNHCR reported that 117.3 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide, including 43.4 million refugees, 68.3 million internally displaced people, and 6.9 million asylum seekers. Midway through 2025, as I write this review, there are news stories coming from the United States of the US government cancelling the legal visa status of asylum seekers and permanent residents and deporting them to their home country—or in some cases to points unknown. Refugees have been wrongly portrayed as criminals, invaders—the Other. And into that fraught and evil system comes the wholesome, simple, and truthful story of refugees with Thread by Thread.
Thread by Thread utilizes a unique illustration style. Artist Michela Eccli created the art through physical drawings, skeins of yarn, and a camera. The result is a mixed modality that highlights the changes that refugees go through—how as one life unravels, a new life is open to beginning. It’s a powerful statement and though the full tactile experience of the physical yarn and paper drawing can’t come through in a printed form, it gives young readers examples of art in books that goes beyond drawing/painting. I could easily see this book being used in schools with students creating their own yarn art that tells their own story.
The words to the story are really minimal, serving to really just move the pictorial narrative along. It’s simple, poetic, and powerful. After we see a yarn-house unraveled early in the book, we’re told “Little by little, thread by thread, we’ll rebuild our nest.” It’s a testament to the perseverance and resilience of refugees to make a new life.
And as we move into a period of time where it seems like the lives of refugees are being threatened again, Thread by Thread is a reminder that we can use our systems to tear down or build up. May we be a people who knit together communities and families, not those who tear it apart.