The Journey by Francesca Sanna

The Journey by Francesca Sanna

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Received: Publishers Group Canada
Publication Date: September 1st, 2016
Publisher: Flying Eye Books
Genres & Themes: Picture Book, Family, Immigration

BLURB:

With haunting echoes of the current refugee crisis this beautifully illustrated book explores the unimaginable decisions made as a family leave their home and everything they know to escape the turmoil and tragedy brought by war. This book will stay with you long after the last page is turned.

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This picture book will stay with me for a long time to come.

It tells the journey of a mother and two children who must flee their homeland to be safe from the war that began and took the life of their father. But the journey is long and hard. Luckily, the two kids have their mother to draw their strength from and protect them.

There are no countries mentioned. It’s also not time-specific. Because of this, anyone who has been in this family’s situation or are able to empathize with them will be affected. It’s not a bedtime tale; it’s reality.

But a lyrical and astonishingly-illustrated reality. I want to say that the storyline is this book’s best element, but the pictures are like nothing I have ever seen before and my list of picture books or graphic novels read is ten feet long.

I know I will be rereading this one again in less than a month, and perhaps for the other months to come. Names are never mentioned, and still I love these characters with all my heart. Their future is open-ended, and still I cross my fingers that everything will be alright for them. Except that’s as much up to them as it is up to us, the population. We must welcome them to our countries.

Read it. Read it. Read it.

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