Journey by Aaron Becker

Pure imagination is Journey, a wordless picture book by Aaron Becker (Candlewick, $15.99, Ages 4-8). Today’s review is by Hilary Taber.

Journeying through the world of this stunning picture book, the audience follows the adventure of a little girl who uses a red marker to literally draw herself from one world into another. Lonely and bored in her own home, the little girl retreats to her room where she uses a red marker to draw a secret, red door. This new world beyond the red door is filled with breathtaking landscapes.

First, blue lanterns in green trees filled with lights lead to moats. The moats in turn lead our heroine to a complex, gray castle. Here she sails through Venetian canals, past golden domes that point to a vast sky. When one mode of transportation doesn’t work any longer, the girl simply uses the magical red marker to draw one that will. She travels by red boat, balloon, and finally a flying carpet. Journey upon journey seems possible. Then comes the moment that the girl sees an elegant purple bird in danger of being kidnapped and caged for life. Suddenly, this imaginative exploration turns into a daring adventure to help a new friend. Every page makes you want to turn to the next to know what happens. Can the little girl save her new friend?  Where will this journey take her next? Will she ever get home again? Page after gorgeously illustrated page beckons the reader on.

This wordless picture book has stolen my heart with its detailed watercolor world, and has captured my full attention with all its adventure. Wordless picture books have a magical quality about them in as much as they are able to unite those who cannot read with those who can. Here is an equal playing field where an adult and child can talk their way through the pictures, discussing each page as they go along. Aaron Becker leads us on an imaginative trip well worth taking, exploring the powerful results of creativity united with inspiration and friendship. Of course, the famous Harold and the Purple Crayon comes to mind when reading Journey, but all you really have to do is open the book to look at the fantastic illustrations to see that Becker has made Journey into something entirely his own. Journey has been given starred reviews by Kirkus, Publisher’s Weekly, School Library Journal, and Booklist! Will this be a Caldecott winner? I certainly hope so!

We hope that the book trailer below for Journey will help you to discover this imaginative picture book for yourself: