--- --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) # Blankets by [James Poniewozik](/author/james-poniewozik/) Aug 25, 2003 4:00 AM CUT by [James Poniewozik](/author/james-poniewozik/) Aug 25, 2003 4:00 AM CUT Blankets (Top Shelf; 582 pages) is an autobiographical novel about a sensitive, artistic, vegetarian, teenage boy who finds love with a sensitive, artistic, vegetarian, teenage girl. That is, it should be insufferable. Instead it is a rarity: a first-love story so well remembered and honest that it reminds you what falling in love feels like. The narrator, Craig Thompson, grows up in rural Wisconsin in a devout Christian family. Craig’s childhood is one long bout of fear–of bullies, hell, the baby-sitter who molests him and his little brother–until, at a Christian winter camp, Craig meets Raina, a doe-eyed outsider from a troubled family. Blankets’ charm and strength are that, like a love-sick teenager, the book is not embarrassed to be earnest about either Craig and Raina’s romance or their religion (in one panel, hormone-drunk Craig sees Raina as a vision from Song of Solomon). As their affair gets complicated, so does the novel, becoming a bittersweet meditation on family, faith, loss and memory. Thompson complements it with rapturous drawings of winter in northern Michigan and Wisconsin, a season that for all its harshness can–like Blankets–be achingly beautiful. –J.P. Blankets ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6669374/blankets/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6669374/blankets/"},"headline":"Blankets","datePublished":"2003-08-25T04:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-27T07:51:22.563Z","description":"By Craig Thompson","url":"https://time.com/archive/6669374/blankets/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"James Poniewozik","url":"https://time.com/author/james-poniewozik/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6669374/blankets/","name":"Blankets"}}]}] ```