The energetic, comical illustrations, in Boynton’s signature style, will elicit giggles and go far to make the book’s important point. This riotous book hits all the right notes and does so succinctly and hilariously. So forgive yourself, chickens! But the best thing is…instead of relying on someone else-like a chicken-to strengthen your ego, say a generous daily “WOO HOO!” to yourself. That alone is a pep talk, enhanced by the wisdom that making mistakes allows everyone to learn and demonstrate they did their best. But what if your cheerful chick errs and doesn’t do what it set out to do? Don’t worry-your cheery chicken just needs a reminder that everyone makes mistakes. Your feathered champion will be right there, encouraging you all the way, with a loud “WOO HOO!” that’ll keep you going and remove any doubt you’re super terrific. What’s better than a cheerleading chicken?Īre you ever blue, unsure, tired, or overworked? Do you ever feel lost or overwhelmed? This uplifting book, expressed in delightful, jaunty verse, explains how to lift your spirits pronto: What you need is a booster chicken telling you’re doing great even when you’re not so confident, as when you’re learning or practicing a new skill, for instance. After freeing the bird, she needs its help for a quick escape through a small purple door back to her everyday street and back to a boy who wields an equally powerful purple crayon (an obvious and moving homage).Īn imaginative adventure story whose elaborate illustrations inspire wonder, careful examination and multiple reads. They conjure contextual questions with no clear answers, or perhaps with so many answers one’s imagination finds itself opening door upon door and crossing thresholds, just as the girl did to escape loneliness. White pages highlight action (the girl’s crayon whips up a boat, a hot air balloon and a magic carpet when needed), but most spreads deliver fantastically intricate pen, ink and watercolor architectural illustrations that remain playfully engrossing.

Putty-colored grays and flat, boxy city shapes defined the girl’s urban reality, but here, color rules, modulating from mossy greens to slate blues to dusky purple-all punctuated with her crayon’s brilliant red and the yellow of a golden bird cage. She could be anyone, really, and readers will easily appropriate her journey as their own. Amid these marvels, the girl appears markedly ordinary with her common pageboy haircut, minimal facial features and simple clothes. Ignored by her digitally distracted family, a girl draws a red door on her bedroom wall and steps through.Ī lush green forest twinkles with lanterns and strung lights a dizzying castle towers, its gates, turrets and halls linked by complicated waterways a hovering aircraft festooned with propellers and wheels holds an imprisoned purple-plumed bird.

Journey by Aaron Becker