Journey

Author: Aaron Becker
Publication Date: 2013
Type of Book: Picture Book

This wordless picture book shares the journey one little girl takes after she finds a red marker. This red marker is magic and whatever she draws comes to life. Her journey begins after she draws a door and goes through it. She goes all over the place, traveling by foot, boat, flying carpet, and hot air balloon. During her journey she saves a purple bird that ends up helping her later on. The bird leads her to a purple door that resembles the red door she drew earlier. After going through the door she is taken back to where she began but she meets a young boy who has a magic pen just like her. The two of them take their magic pens and continue their journey together.

My favorite part of this book is that everything the girl creates is bright red. The colors throughout the story are very muted and the red always pops on the page. Each page is also illustrated with incredible details. Since the illustrations are so well done there was never a point where I didn't understand what was happening even though there weren't any words. This story also promotes creativity which I love. It also shows readers the benefit of being kind and helping those in need. If the girl wasn't kind and didn't help the bird escape she would never had made a new friend.

I would recommend this book for students in upper elementary school. The story told through the illustrations may be difficult for younger children to interpret, unless it is used during small groups with an adult to help scaffold student's thinking. Students in upper elementary school could use this as a part of a wordless picture book genre study. They can gather ideas for their own wordless picture book from this story. Students can also do an activity where they put dialogue into the story.

Image References:
http://www.amazon.com/Journey-Aaron-Becker/dp/0763660531/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1448132920&sr=1-1&keywords=journey