'Aaron Becker has made several memorable journeys in his lifetime. What is so captivating about this picture book is the variety of influences you see in Becker's art, namely the Eastern influences, especially on the first full page spread where our protagonist enters the land of her imagination and you see paper lanterns strewn about the forest.īut truly, this book can be summed up by reading Aaron Becker's biography on the back flap: There's a perfect spot for the sticker on the left side - all that sky is just begging for an award sticker to be placed upon it.

It is probably my favorite wordless picture book of all time. It will make you gasp at its beauty and feats of imagination. Journey is an absolutely stunning, heart-skipping wordless picture book. When a young girl is desperate for some attention from her family but they appear to be too wrapped up in their own lives to notice her, she draws herself into an imaginary land and can get herself out of any predicament with just a few lines drawn from a magical red crayon. I don't think the world needs another wallflower girl, so anything that nudges Emma away from the shy, second class citizenship so many women are cast into is all right by me! I know I was happy to see a girl as the hero of the story, taking matters into her own hands, going on adventures, etc. Otherwise nothing more than a touch of gold here or a highlighted gleam of light there are used to transform the dull landscape into something living and vaguely mysterious.Įmma isn't terribly sexist (on the other hand just recently she started a 'NO BOYS ALLOWED!' club, though I think that was set up in hopes of luring in the boys with reverse psychology), but the fact that the main character is a girl might have increased her interest in Journey. A vivid red is used to indicate the magic items the girl has drawn. And yet, the funny thing is, much of this is in drab colors. The full spread, and sometimes double spread illustrations are highly detailed. This book isn't an entirely original idea, but it is very well executed.

We excitedly guessed what the girl was drawing next and lingered lovingly over the lavish illustrations, reveling in the merest of details. She draws up a boat or magic carpet or whatever, and off we go into a fantastical land of fairy forests, castles and steampunky airships.

All three of us sat around the dining room table, not reading the wordless pages, yet fully enthralled by this wonderful adventure of a girl escaping loneliness and the doldrums of daily life with a stick of magic chalk. Usually reading time is an Emma and me thing, but even Tita Cherry (my wife/Emma's aunt) got in on this one. We LOVED Journey!!! We loved everything about it! * * * Read and Reviewed by Me & My Niece Emma * * *

Journey aaron becker pictures