Journey

A lonely young girl lives on the corner of a sepia-toned street in the middle of a sepia-toned city. The other kids have friends; all she has is her red scooter. Her mother is in the kitchen talking on the phone; her father sits intently at his computer; her sister is on the couch, eyes glued to her tablet. Listless and bored, the young girl sits dejectedly on her sepia-toned bed.

It's then that she notices a red marker on her bedroom floor.

With one curved line she draws a door in her bedroom wall and steps through it into a lush, green world full of magical landscapes and daring adventures. She follows intrepidly wherever this journey takes her—whether it be past a wonderful waterfall castle, over a gorgeous Arabian desert, or straight into the hands of an evil sky-emperor.

With an idea similar to that of Harold and the Purple Crayon and a whimsy reminiscent of Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland comes this lush wordless Caldecott honor book from former Pixar artist Aaron Becker. The illustrations are beautiful watercolor over pen-and-ink, playing rich greens, blue, purples, and yellows against the chalky red marker. This is a book for getting lost in, one that carries its readers along just like it carries our young heroine and, like all good journeys, comes full circle at the end.

Watch the book trailer for Journey:

Review by Lauren Shearer
Lauren Shearer writes words for fun and profit. She also makes films, but everyone knows you can't make a profit doing that. Her other hobby is consistently volunteering way too much of her time. You can read more of her reviews here.