The Journey starts out masked within stories of plum jams and crumpets, pickles, and travels underground in search of the Pole of Inaccessibility. Bernard the main character is the guide on these travels. But prepare for the unexpected.
This book is full of metaphors and hidden meanings which--in a child’s eyes--may appear simply as an adventure in which to participate.
It comes with a map and instructions that the reader must follow and fill out as they travel, a scroll, activities, codes to decipher, games to play, riddles to solve, and recipes to lots of things mentioned throughout the book. These goodies are presented on fold-out pages in the book, except for the map that comes in a special envelope stuck to the inside of the back cover.
For the adult reader, there is much more to discover in the clever, poetic text for ‘there is more to a journey than walking down paths’ and children’s books are seldom just books for children. I plucked profound messages to tuck away about the way we travel through life, how we face and accept what we encounter, and what we do next.
The appealing pen and ink illustrations complement the text while the brilliant yellow cover reflects the contents perfectly.
Congratulations to Coral Tulloch and the team at Walker Books for the imagining of this outstanding publication.
- this review by Anastasia Gonis
Title: The Journey
Author: Coral Tulloch
Publisher: Walker Books, $19.95 RRP
Publication Date: November 2013
Format: Hardcover, spiral bound
ISBN: 9781922077615
For ages: 8+
Type: Interactive Adventure, Junior Fiction, Activity Book
