Five Books in Five Days – Day 4: Journey

Welcome to our fourth book of The Picture Book Party: Five Books in Five Days, running in conjunction with PanMacmillan South Africa and Walker Books UK… This is a magical book and while it was new to us, it instantly became a firm favourite. It is a comfortable book for disappearing into… the sort of book that is carried around and read again and again… on the couch, under the table, up a tree, on a closet shelf, in bed after lights out. You have to look at it again and again and closer and closer. There are no words… they would be superfluous the art is more than enough. Not many books have inspired my children to literally drop everything and play for days and days as this one did.

Day 4: Journey

While some books bring out the baking in us and others inspire craftiness, and some are packed with memories… some books just bring out the play. So we played and played and played… This book is the ultimate in whimsical. A book without words and oh such a beautiful story. Illustrations absolutely packed with details, they provide a complete break as you are totally transported to another world. A Mysterious world. This is the kind of book that slows you down, you just can’t rush through it, there is so much to wonder at… an adventure of the epic variety, where you feel you just have to linger longer…

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The fact that there are no words in this story is really interesting, because the story is so well defined with out words… the story is so vivid that no words would fit it. A young girl is looking for someone to play with… but everyone else is busy. She finds herself in her bedroom, an ordinary room that is so delightfully ordinary that all my children would like one like it… just to pepper with their own personality. Anyhow her sleepy cat has been lying on her papers, as cats do, and rises up and reveals a red chalk. She draws a door in the wall and walks through it… gasp (and I am not exaggerating)… she steps into a vast green forest. Hold on to your seats… because this is only the very beginning. This is a girl on an epic journey through places that you can only imagine as you turn the pages you find yourself wandering through a dream world… it seams vaguely familiar and I am guessing that that is because we all imagine similar worlds… but here is an artist that can draw it for us.

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Anyway… there is a beautiful and mysterious bird that journeys above her… and it needs rescuing and then becomes the rescuer. Whenever the girl is in need of something she uses her red chalk to draw the next step… there are so many little threads to follow and think about and when you reach the last page… you realise that you need to go back to the beginning and look again. There are things that you may well have missed.

Did I mention Playing…

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We had to create a world with a whimsical bird…

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And this play has been going on for days…

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Se7en + 1 Create Magic Carpets…

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What could be better than a fresh box of chalks…

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A little trick I remember from school was using sugar water to keep the chalks bright and the colours stick to the paper better… We used packing paper, what better paper to use for a flying carpet than paper that has already been on an incredible journey.

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Chalks followed by snipping and sticking…

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Because a flying carpet needs tassels…

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And then the carpets were ready…

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To fly…

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We are planning to end the week with a post of recommendations by our readers, so we really want to hear from you. Today’s book was called Journey and it really took you on an epic one. Is there a book that you love and that has taken you on an epic journey…

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Day 1: Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs

Day 2: Where’s Wally? The Magnificent Mini Book Box

Day 3: We’re Going on a Bear Hunt…

We were given a copy of this book for review by PanMacmillan South Africa, we were not paid for the review and the opinions expressed were as usual, entirely our own. If you want to know more about the Picture Book Party, click the image, it will take you there!!!

10 Replies to “Five Books in Five Days – Day 4: Journey”

  1. Hi Jeanine… I am so glad you enjoyed it, we totally loved this book – totally. And have had so much fun because of it!!! Hope you all have a great weekend!!!

  2. Well Hello Aaron Becker, and wow you stopped by!!! Have to say we totally loved your book… it’s a heart and soul book, for sure. Thank you so much for an incredible book and stopping by and saying hi. Hope you have an amazing weekend!!!

  3. Oh Cat… Look out for this one… it is really a magical book. Lots of places to escape to in it, our whole family enjoyed it thoroughly. Hope you guys have a fun weekend!!!

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