LOVE that. Especially because, despite the fact that the journey in this book is by that of a young girl, it still felt very much like a personal journey for the illustrator. So reading his bio at the end didn't surprise me at all. This book really is his journey. A little girl draws a magic door in her bedroom and opens up a whole new world for herself, she escapes to the adventure she has created. magical door from her bedroom wall, she finds herself transported into enthralling new lands – vividly colourful and alive with adventure. Navigating her way through

And together, they made a bicycle! They can continue on to new journeys and worlds together. Two crayons are better than one 🙂 Closing (savasana, or resting pose) Use travel brochures, magazines or the internet to build a collection of photographic images showing some of the cultural references. Copy and laminate them. Talk about the pictures and provides some context using what you know or have read. You could refer to travel guides or books about Japan from the library. You can grab the whole trio of books here. They also lend themselves nicely to yoga lesson plans and sequences . What you have here is a wordless storybook. It is, I would suggest, more a work of art, a collection of linked paintings that tell a story. Our main character (nameless), seeks refuge from her disconnected life in the adventures she creates with her red crayon. Sound like a book we've all read and loved? Stay with me. She journeys, with her crayon, into a beautifully imagined world and an adventure. I really don't want to ruin the BRILLIANT (boy how I wish FB would let me italicize) twist ending, but I will say that this is so much more than an homage to HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON, it is an extension of it, a tribute to it, a joining of worlds. Wordless picture books can be a good way to develop oral storytelling skills and Journey is ideal for this. Using the images as prompts, tell the story in your own words. Start with simple retellings of the bare bones before working in smaller groups to develop your stories by adding details. In this way, each group will create a different version of the story.

Now, close your eyes and think in your brain about where YOU would go if you were on that bicycle. What would you see? What would you hear? Would you smell anything new? How would it feel to be riding freely to someplace new? This ‘visual literacy’ approach to a picture’s content, narrative and composition is an effective way to boost children’s speaking and listening skills and develop their critical abilities, as well as increase their enjoyment of the book. Make a word bank that includes words you could use to describe the people, places and events in the story. We meet a girl who is lonely and the rest of her family is busy. She finds her imagination and she is off in another world. A very lovely world filled with wonders. She uses her magic red crayon to create things or open doors. Look at the picture showing the girl in her bedroom. Can you see things that make an appearance later in the book? Sometimes ideas for stories come easily, other times they need a bit of help.

Start this activity with some guided visualisation. Give each child a coloured crayon or pencil. Use a variety of colours – one colour per child. To begin, have them hold the coloured pencil and think about the things that colour reminds them of. Now invite them to imagine in their ‘mind’s-eye’ (like television pictures running in their head) that they are at home in their room. It’s a dull day. Everyone else is busy doing their own thing. Imagine that you look down at your crayon. You have an idea! You go over to the wall and draw a door with your crayon. You open the door and step through into another world. She continues to watch the bird, and is startled when it is suddenly captured in a big net! Bird in a cage (Eagle pose)Choose one double spread – the illustration showing the girl entering the city works well – and talk about what’s going on. What can you see, and what questions do you have? Apart from the boat, the colours in this image are muted. How does this make you feel and what do you think about it? Talk about the characters. If you could take the girl’s place in the picture, what would you hear and touch, and what emotions would you feel? Invent dialogue for the characters, and discuss what might be going to happen next. Do you think the girl can see things that we (as readers) cannot? Use the title as the starting point for your own story. What might your own story about a ‘Journey’ include? For traditional oral storytellers the structure of a story is a framework that must be kept intact, rather like a set of bones. Individual retellings are marked out by added details and embellishments. Create a video that shows the illustrations in the book and is accompanied by your own narration / speech. What words would you use to describe the bright and colourful world the girl opens her red door into?

The children may already be familiar with Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are.Read the beginning of the story together Maurice Sendak Where the Wild Things AreA world conjured up through the power of the imagination…perhapsAs you explore the illustrations in the book, try to find features that might be clues about the rest of the story.