Book
The journey / by Francesca Sanna.
"What is it like to have to leave everything behind and travel many miles to somewhere unfamiliar and strange? A mother and her two children set out on such a journey; one filled with fear of the unknown, but also great hope. Based on her interactions with people forced to seek a new home, and told from the perspective of a young child, Francesca Sanna has created a beautiful and sensitive book that is full of significance for our time."-- Provided by publisher.
Record details
- ISBN: 9781909263994
- ISBN: 1909263990
- Physical Description: 1 volume (unpaged) : colour illustrations ; 22 x 29 cm
- Publisher: London : Flying Eye Books, 2016.
- Copyright: ©2016.
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Refugees > Juvenile fiction. Fathers > Death > Juvenile fiction. Mother and child > Juvenile fiction. Children and war > Juvenile fiction. |
| Topic Heading: | All ages picture books |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at Westcoast Early Learning Library.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Show Only Available Copies
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Westcoast Early Learning Library | SANN 2016 (Text) | 35200000728571 | Childrens Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2016 September #2
*Starred Review* Based on interviews she conducted with families at an Italian refugee center, Sanna's debut picture book uses powerful yet fanciful imagery to tell the story of one family's flight from danger in an unnamed country. In a bright palette and playful visual style belying the serious subject matter, the story begins on a beach, where the family of four happily plays. War comes in the form of a pitch-black wave attacking the shore, knocking down sand castles and causing havoc. That oppressive black wave continues inland, taking their father and following them home. The now-smaller family then sets off in a series of vehicles, headed for a land with high mountains and friendly creatures. The landscapes, animals, and people they meet on their journey begin to resemble fairy talesâa large bearded man angrily leans over a wall, practically swallowing it with his huge body, to turn them away from a borderâwhich helps soften some of the inherent danger. The straightforward text from the children's perspective contrasts compellingly with images of the mother, who cries when they're not looking. By the end, the family has still not reached safety, and a train on the endpapers emphasizes that their journey is ongoing. Simultaneously heartbreaking, scary, and brightly hopeful, this timely tale with simply captivating artwork will spur little ones to ask questions that lack easy answers. Copyright 2016 Booklist Reviews. - Horn Book Guide Reviews : Horn Book Guide Reviews 2017 Fall
In a piercing first-person account, a child tells of a harrowing journey with a sibling and their mother. Sanna's stylized illustrations are both captivating and unsettling; specifics of the setting are never established (details suggest an Islamic-world origin and a Nordic destination), and that intentional lack of specificity adds disquiet. Still, the story is not without hope. An author's note invites real-world connections. Copyright 2017 Horn Book Guide Reviews. - Horn Book Magazine Reviews : Horn Book Magazine Reviews 2017 #2
In a piercing first-person account, one of the two children in the family pictured here tells the story of losing their father to war and undertaking a harrowing journey with their mother as they hide in cargo trucks, evade guards, scale walls, and endure a sea passage on an overcrowded ferry. Sanna's stylized illustrations, with gargantuan villains and swirling inky black, are both captivating and unsettling. Specifics of the setting are never established. Details in the illustrations, such as headscarves and minarets, suggest an Islamic-world origin, while mountains and forest fauna (including a reindeer in a harness) a Nordic destination. That intentional lack of specificity adds disquiet to the journey, and Sanna amplifies the tension with occasional dissonance between the text and art; at one point we hear the narrator say, "But mother is with us and she is never scared," while the accompanying image shows her distraught and weeping. Still, the story is not without hope. The family's arrival is accompanied by an uplifting ascendance of birds and the promise of a new beginning. An author's note characterizes the arc as a "collage of personal stories" the author collected in a refugee center in Italy, inviting connections to the current state of the real world. thom barthelmess Copyright 2017 Horn Book Magazine Reviews. - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2016 July #2
A timely, powerful picture book about refugees.Although the setting's time and place are unspecified, the story of a widowed mother fleeing a war-torn homeland with her two children reverberates with the real-world experiences of contemporary Syrian refugees and others crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe. The family members have black hair and pale skin, and the mother takes advice from a friend who wears the hijab, though her own hair is uncovered. They travel by car, by bicycle, hidden in the backs of trucks, and on foot until they reach a wall, where a border guard prevents them from crossing. Here, expressive, posterlike art renders the guard a monstrously tall, red-bearded man who towers over the wall and sends the family back into the forest. In a heart-rending spread, facing pages depict the mother cradling her children on the verso as the child narrator confides, "In the darkness the noises of the forest scare me," while on the recto the child continues, "But my mother is with us and she is never scared"âwith a picture of the family in the same huddled pose but with the children now asleep and tears streaming from the mothers' eyes. After a dangerous sea crossing, the family moves with hope toward a safer place, though there is no certain happily-ever-after resolution. A necessary, artful, and searing story. (author's note) (Picture book. 4-12) Copyright Kirkus 2016 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved. - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2016 July #2
Storybook imageryâforeboding woods, looming giants, and creatures of forest and seaâcollides with desperately real circumstances as a family seeks haven from encroaching war. As Sanna's debut opens, a family of four builds a vast sand castle city at the beach as inky waters pour in ominously. Those waves transform into swiping, grabbing hands on the following page ("Every day bad things started happening around us"), and the children's father is soon killed. After the family decides to leave for a faraway country, Sanna traces their long journey, devoting attention to the children's reluctance to leave behind familiar surroundings and the sheer difficulty of their effort. "The further we go... the more we leave behind," she writes as the family switches from vehicle to vehicle, sometimes hiding beneath fruit or clay jugs. Sanna's crisp-edged, screenprintlike forms strike a careful balance between representing visceral dangers and offering tiny measures of hope. Given the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe and immigration debates in the U.S. and abroad, Sanna's story is well poised to spark necessary conversations about the costs of war. Ages 3â7. (Sept.)
[Page ]. Copyright 2016 PWxyz LLC - School Library Journal Reviews : SLJ Reviews 2016 November
Gr 1â4âThe crisp blend of realistic and fantastical illustrations in Sanna's debut picture book impart as much content and emotional depth as its carefully woven text narrated by an anonymous child. This title chronicles the unexpected, grueling migration of a family whose lives are forever changed by war. A contrasting palette with the startling use of black effectively depicts the father's death, the grasping hands of worry, and the fear, sadness, and exhaustion experienced during the arduous escape. Protagonists' pale faces and dark hair call to mind Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel Persepolis, although the setting is not specific in terms of region or country. Readers follow the family with bated breath from the beginning end pages, which foreshadow the plot, and then as they travel by car, trucks, bicycle, foot, boat, and train. The narrator notes that "the farther we goâ¦the more we leave behind." Simple words. Profound meaning. Books and storytelling provide a measure of emotional stamina for the family throughout their journey, and final end pages offer a small sense of hope for this unfinished tale. VERDICT Based on a compilation of immigrant interviews, this selection is timely and beautiful, appropriate for use with young children given the continuing situation of refugees around the world made particularly visible in recent years.âRuth Quiroa, National Louis University, IL. Copyright 2016 School Library Journal. - School Library Journal Reviews : SLJ Reviews 2016 December
Gr 1â4âA young child recounts her experiences as war comes to her once-peaceful nation, claims her father's life, and forces her mother to give up everything they know to seek a better, safer future for her children. The innocent voice and dramatic graphic-style illustrations tell a harrowing, haunting, yet hopeful story of a family's search for a place to call home.. Copyright 2016 School Library Journal.
