Summer's dragging on at our house, and my kids are ready for an adventure. I haven't booked us a family expedition to, well, anywhere, so they're turning to books to satisfy their cravings. For my youngest, who still prefers picture books to chapter books, that mystery and excitement is coming from the pages of Quest by Aaron Becker.
If the name sounds familiar, it's because you may have seen his first wordless picture book, the Caldecott honoree, Journey. I'm not quite sure how he's able to tell such a vivid story in pictures alone, but my kids are mesmerized.
In Quest, a king surprises two children by popping through a hidden door in a city park. He shoves a map and some objects in their hands right before he's yanked back through the door by hostile captors. The kids must figure out what these objects are and rescue the king. As soon as my son figured out the clues, we had to flip back to the beginning and go through it again to see what we'd missed. That's a sure sign of a great book.
One of the things I love about this book having no words is that my kids and I linger on each page, soaking up the illustrations and talking about what we think the author is trying to tell us through the pictures. Our interpretations are all a little different, and for me just sitting and talking about it together is an adventure worth taking.
It's definitely worth checking out the gorgeous trailer - and we're so excited that we get to be the first to share it with our readers. Watch it with your kids and see if they don't get hooked. Mine sure did.
Pre-order your copy of Quest now, and join the adventure when it releases at the end of August.
QUEST. Copyright © 2014 by Aaron Becker. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA.
