The Journey by Francesca Sanna (Illustrations)

With haunting echoes of the current refugee crisis this beautifully illustrated book explores the unimaginable decisions made as a family leave their home and everything they know to escape the turmoil and tragedy brought by war. This book will stay with you long after the last page is turned.

Francesca is an Italian illustrator and graphic designer who moved to Switzerland to follow her dream to work as an illustrator. She graduated in 2015 from the Lucerne School of Art and Design with a Master of Design with focus on Illustration. The Journey is her first picture book.

 “I look up to the birds that seem to be following us. They are migrating just like us. And their journey, like ours, is very long, but they don’t have to cross any borders.”

What is it like to have to leave everything behind and travel many miles to somewhere unfamiliar and strange? A mother and her two children set out on such a journey; one filled with fear of the unknown, but also great hope.

Based on her interactions with people forced to seek a new home, and told from the perspective of a young child, Francesca Sanna has created a beautiful and sensitive book that is full of significance for our time.

In her stunning first picture book the author/illustrator Francesca Sanna has drawn on the experiences she heard about from recent refugees from many countries. The text in this book is easy to read in terms of vocabulary and sentence structure and this apparent simplicity combined with the memorable illustrations have great power to move readers of all ages. Each spread features a carefully chosen colour palette, depicting the variety of landscapes, real and emotional, through which a family passes, escaping conflict and seeking sanctuary.

The pictures are all so striking, it’s hard to choose which to highlight, but for emotional power the twin images of the mother encircling her children for protection in the darkness of the forest will linger long in the mind. On the left hand page they are all awake and gazing at each other. On the right page, the child’s words ‘But mother is with us and she is never scared’ belie the image of the mother’s tears cascading down as her children sleep. Images of the natural world permeate the book, one of the most delightful pictures being of a variety of birds migrating, causing the narrator to consider that they do not have to cross borders as people do. The book ends on a hopeful note but makes it clear that most refugees live with continued uncertainty, even when they hope they have reached a place of safety.