Journey for Picture Book Friday

Well this may be my last post with a Caldecott contender for the year.  The holidays are coming and the award will be given out in January, so that doesn't leave a lot of time for speculation.  Yes, the most distinguished picture book award is only a few weeks away.  Can you feel the anticipation growing?    Perhaps I am getting a little too carried away!

This week I have another wordless picture book.  Yes, that Caldecott committee loves books with no words, but they still remain a bit akward for me.  My favorite wordless story this year was without a doubt Mr. Wuffles, but this week's book Journey is a beautiful picture book of ... well... a journey.

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Title:           Journey

Illustrator:  Aaron Becker

Target:       Preschool - Grade 2

What this book is about:
A little girl living in a monochrome world is bored.  She grabs her red crayon and draws a door, which takes her into a magically colorful world full of adventure.  Her crayon allows her to navigate through that world, drawing what she needs to move the story, and the journey, forward.

Why I love this book:
Very reminiscent of Harold and the Purple Crayon, this book takes that concept to a much more sophisticated and graphically interesting level.  In this story there are castles, aquaducts, flying contraptions and soldiers.  I do like that our heroine finds a friend in the story who can imagine with her in the "real" world.

There is a lot to talk about in this book and "find" within the illustrations that help move the story along.  Once kids have been through it once they will enjoy seeing the clues in the second and third readings.

My only critisism is that it starts with the girl being ignored by her family in favor of technology.  This seems to be the new theme in picture books.  Blackout, Doug Unplugged, Hello! Hello! and Chloe all had the same type of theme and these are just the ones I can name off the top of my head.  I would have liked to see a beginning that was a little more original.

Who this book is for:
Lovely book for kids who like finding and discovering things in the illustrations.  Also good for kids with an active imagination.

Final thoughts:
Caldecott likes wordless books, and I wouldn't be surprised to see this one garner at least an Honor Book sticker.

Purchase this book:
To purchase this book from Amazon, click on the following link: Journey  A portion of each purchase will be donated to this blog at no cost to you.