The most distinguished picture book of the year combines fantastical worlds with an engaging narrative arc. In Aaron Becker’s Journey, every illustration showcases the evocative power of watercolors and underscores the main theme of adventure.
Journey is about a lonely city girl who journeys into new lands through the power of her red marker, and it is this world-building that sets Becker’s work apart from his contemporaries. Though he demonstrates an eye for perspective and a definite talent with ink and watercolor, the success of his paintings is a result of how each distinct setting reflects the emotion and conflict at the core of the scene. For example, the initial full-bleed double spread indicates the girl’s loneliness and detachment from others: her family members are in separate boxes and the other children are separated from her by the gutter. When she attempts connection with the family, she is rebuffed and retreats to her own gray box, floating in an airframe, a wonderful depiction of her increasing loneliness. The next full-bleed double spread of the forest is magical and expansive, indicating an emotional shift toward hope. The two double-spreads of an outrageously complex waterfall city include detailed illustrations of an innovative castle, but it is the friendliness of the soldiers and her mid-page placement with upward diagonals that suggest a hopefulness at this point in the journey.
It is here that Becker’s storytelling skills become most evident, and he begins to focus on external conflicts. When the girl’s red boat drop out from under her, she recovers by drawing a hot air balloon. She shares a goodbye (and the verso) with the friendly guards but is placed in a new world, the clouds. In the next spread, the red of her balloon dominates the page and the girl is large, closer than she has ever been to the reader. However, our attention is attracted to the purple bird on the recto, and this careful use of expansiveness and the gutter heightens the tension of the scene. The series of illustrations that follow are dreary, and just when the flattest, gray composition implies that there is no hope, the page turn brings the warmth of a sunrise and the return of the red marker. The girl draws a magic carpet to escape and is transported to yet another world.
If Becker’s world-building is a mark of excellence, it is the art on the blank white pages that distinguishes this book from other wordless picturebooks. Every white page is a moment during which the protagonist takes action and changes the story. If the full bleeds give an understanding of place, the white pages give an understanding of the character. In the beginning she is lonely: she is ignored by her three family members. She is imaginative: she draws a door out of her boring life. She is resourceful: she draws a boat, a balloon, and a flying carpet when the need arises. She is brave: she climbs onto the golden pagoda and she steals the bird. She is empathetic: she fights against the guards that hold her. She is friendly: she co-creates a tandem bicycle when she meets the boy with the purple marker.
One of the great joys of the wordless picture book is the trail of hints left by the author. The repetition of modes of transportation on the end papers is only the beginning of the visual nods to travel. The children playing in the first spread have objects related to transportation, a bicycle and a skate board. There are a number of signifiers for movement in that setting as well: the stairwell, and the bird, and a winged figure on the top of one of the buildings that is the same shape as that which will appear on the golden pagoda. In her room there are symbols of voyage: a map, a poster of egypt, a hot air balloon hanging from the ceiling, stars and planets on her dresser, and a plane in the window. Even the title page is rich with symbolic images of travel: the scooter, the street signs, the intraiconic representation of the bus. It’s particularly fun to note that it is only when the cat moves off the drawing supplies (heaven knows how cats want to be on paper!) that she sees the marker that will be her escape. Each new read of this book reveals another layer of visual storytelling, and for these reasons and more, Journey deserves the Caldecott Award.
Story Catching 