{"id":1375,"date":"2014-03-07T21:59:35","date_gmt":"2014-03-08T02:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/?p=1375"},"modified":"2014-03-07T21:59:35","modified_gmt":"2014-03-08T02:59:35","slug":"journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/?p=1375","title":{"rendered":"Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AaronBeckerJourneyBegins\"<\/a>One of the most pleasurable things about being a parent for me is searching for, finding, and reading (over and over and over again) really great children\u2019s books.\u00a0 Awful children\u2019s books abound, and unfortunately, kids can latch onto those just as easily as they do the good ones sometimes.\u00a0 Woe be to the poor parent!\u00a0 I\u2019ve resorted to \u201cforgetting\u201d books in faraway places just to be rid of them.\u00a0 However, I did find a particularly beautiful one recently that struck Andreas\u2019 fancy as well as mine, thank goodness.<\/p>\n

It is Journey<\/em> by Aaron Becker – a wordless picture book in watercolor.\u00a0 He tells the tale of a lonely little girl who uses a red crayon to give her an entrance into and a way through a magical world. There is a forest dotted with lights and blue lanterns, a city of waterfalls, flying machines, and a very elegant purple friend. Her journey through this world eventually leads her to her meeting a kindred spirit in the \u201creal\u201d world – on her own city block.<\/p>\n

As much as I value words and language, this book reminds me the sort of image-rich, sensory-rich place I inhabit when music-making is happening at its best.\u00a0 A story, a feeling, an attitude –\u00a0 all are captured and conveyed in a sound, in the turn of a phrase.<\/p>\n

I love the way this little girl journeys through the magical world, exploring her new environment, creating ways to move through it – by boat, by balloon, by a magic carpet.\u00a0 She travels with imagination and bravery and kindness, making near-fatal mistakes and quickly making a way out, or is saved by a new-found friend when all seems lost.<\/p>\n

Of course, though he does like the entire book, Andreas\u2019 is especially anxious to get to the pages with the soldiers on it.\u00a0 He is captivated by anyone carrying a sword or a spear or wearing a helmet.\u00a0 He asks me, \u201cwhat are they saying?\u201d or \u201cis he surprised?\u201d or \u201cis he angry?\u201d as the little girl sneaks up on them and outsmarts them.\u00a0 So I make up some dialogue and we talk about what each of the characters are feeling.<\/p>\n

This is what I love about great books, great music, great art – to be drawn into it, to be able to talk about it with a friend (or my toddler son) and mull it over, its layers revealing itself as I spend time with it and maybe grow or change myself.<\/p>\n

Take a look at Journey<\/em> if you have a chance.\u00a0 It might inspire you through your own!<\/p>\n

Here is\u00a0a link\u00a0to Aaron Becker’s Journey website<\/a>\u00a0so you can take a closer look. \u00a0The “making of” is great fun to watch, as he has some especially interesting things to say about storytelling and working with watercolor. Enjoy!<\/p>\n

\"JourneyPic\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most pleasurable things about being a parent for me is searching for, finding, and reading (over and over and over again) really great children\u2019s books.\u00a0 Awful children\u2019s books abound, and unfortunately, kids can latch onto those just … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-found-things","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1375"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1381,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375\/revisions\/1381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelashornstudio.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}