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Book Reviews: Journey, Quest, and Return by Aaron Becker
Discovered these from the author's review of Chris Van Allsburg's The Wreck of the Zephyr and read them because the author is Jewish. I love finding more Jewish authors! ...I did not love these books.
Like apparently white, actually Japanese characters in anime/manga, I'm not comfortable assuming that a Jewish illustrator drawing a pale skinned, brown haired person isn't representation. But maybe the supporting character in Quest could have been an unambiguous person of color (instead of also pale skinned and brown haired), because obvious visual representation does still matter, especially in kidlit.
And while I love all sorts of portal fantasy (be it entirely without or obviously concerned with critique of its problematic tropes), as I mention below: A wordless portal fantasy narrative leans on and probably reiterates the least nuanced take on the trope. And these visually-white characters coming in to a portal world, being better at that world's magics than the native inhabitants, being selected by & rescuing the Generic Old White King while fighting the villains who wear samurai-style helmets—it's white savoir coding with an amorphously othered villain, as straightforward and classic as the problems with Narnia.
Would I have noticed if I weren't expecting something better because the author is Jewish? maybe not. (Would I have read it were the author not Jewish? probably not.) Marginalized creators aren't obligated to create art about being marginalized; simultaneously, their work is, is about, is informed by, marginalized identity—all art by Jews is Jewish art, but Jewish art is as diverse as the Jewish people.
But white Jewish identity is ... complex. I absolutely cannot dig into that morass of assimilation and conditional privilege right now, and tbh it's also beyond me to fully explore what means for a Jewish man who afaik ticks all other privilege boxes to write an archetypically white narrative, except that: This isn't one bad author disappointing my expectations of Jewish art. This is like learning about Black-Jewish relations throughout American history: it's one complexity of many which informs my understanding of Jewish identity as both marginalized and marginalizing, as being excluded from and participating in power structures. It's interesting, and valuable, and the opposite of what I hope for when picking up a pretty picture book.
Hey self, why do you still not have a Jewish stuff tag??? A problem to solve another time.
Title: Journey (Journey Trilogy Book 1)
Author: Aaron Becker
Published: Candlewick Press, 2013
Rating: 3.5 of 5
Page Count: 40
Total Page Count: 319,720
Text Number: 1122
Read Because: personal enjoyment, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: This is Harold and the Purple Crayon grown up. The elements are strong: a distinctive, effective use of color-coding; a wordless narrative that invites close reading (such as it is) and therefore reader projection; an indulgence of sweeping vistas and intricate cityscapes. (That said, I regret the metallics—they don't reproduce well.) It's engaging, satisfying, but not particularly memorable. Distilling the premise down to its purest form also simplifies it—and while there's room for simplification in picture books, there're also other picture books that cover this territory.
Title: Quest (Journey Trilogy Book 2)
Author: Aaron Becker
Published: Candlewick Press, 2014
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 319,750
Text Number: 1123
Read Because: reading the series, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: Wordless books rely on recognizable tropes and narratives for clarity, but they don't have the means to explore them with nuance. Thus this reiterates everything wrong with the white savoir trope in portal fantasy—in a bland, benign, but uncritical way. The trite ending makes the book feel even more cliché.
But the other trope here is a fantasy map—not usually a trope I care about, but there's no better place for a drawn map than in a world where drawing creates reality. Flipping between the map and the locations is a delight, and that engagement with the art lengthens the hasty plot.
Title: Return (Journey Trilogy Book 3)
Author: Aaron Becker
Published: Candlewick Press, 2016
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 40
Total Page Count: 320,275
Text Number: 1125
Read Because: reading the series, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: I appreciate the inclusion of adults in picture books, particularly as parents participating in their children's adventures. Unfortunately, everything else about this is underwhelming. It borrows too much from Quest, rehashing a similar plot, using the same trite rainbow climax, doubling down on the problem with portal fantasy (feat. "the saviors from our world are better at using portal-world magics than the native inhabitants"). It's not awful, but it's easily the weakest of a middling series, despite the always-gorgeous art; an unfortunate ending.
Like apparently white, actually Japanese characters in anime/manga, I'm not comfortable assuming that a Jewish illustrator drawing a pale skinned, brown haired person isn't representation. But maybe the supporting character in Quest could have been an unambiguous person of color (instead of also pale skinned and brown haired), because obvious visual representation does still matter, especially in kidlit.
And while I love all sorts of portal fantasy (be it entirely without or obviously concerned with critique of its problematic tropes), as I mention below: A wordless portal fantasy narrative leans on and probably reiterates the least nuanced take on the trope. And these visually-white characters coming in to a portal world, being better at that world's magics than the native inhabitants, being selected by & rescuing the Generic Old White King while fighting the villains who wear samurai-style helmets—it's white savoir coding with an amorphously othered villain, as straightforward and classic as the problems with Narnia.
Would I have noticed if I weren't expecting something better because the author is Jewish? maybe not. (Would I have read it were the author not Jewish? probably not.) Marginalized creators aren't obligated to create art about being marginalized; simultaneously, their work is, is about, is informed by, marginalized identity—all art by Jews is Jewish art, but Jewish art is as diverse as the Jewish people.
But white Jewish identity is ... complex. I absolutely cannot dig into that morass of assimilation and conditional privilege right now, and tbh it's also beyond me to fully explore what means for a Jewish man who afaik ticks all other privilege boxes to write an archetypically white narrative, except that: This isn't one bad author disappointing my expectations of Jewish art. This is like learning about Black-Jewish relations throughout American history: it's one complexity of many which informs my understanding of Jewish identity as both marginalized and marginalizing, as being excluded from and participating in power structures. It's interesting, and valuable, and the opposite of what I hope for when picking up a pretty picture book.
Hey self, why do you still not have a Jewish stuff tag??? A problem to solve another time.
Title: Journey (Journey Trilogy Book 1)
Author: Aaron Becker
Published: Candlewick Press, 2013
Rating: 3.5 of 5
Page Count: 40
Total Page Count: 319,720
Text Number: 1122
Read Because: personal enjoyment, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: This is Harold and the Purple Crayon grown up. The elements are strong: a distinctive, effective use of color-coding; a wordless narrative that invites close reading (such as it is) and therefore reader projection; an indulgence of sweeping vistas and intricate cityscapes. (That said, I regret the metallics—they don't reproduce well.) It's engaging, satisfying, but not particularly memorable. Distilling the premise down to its purest form also simplifies it—and while there's room for simplification in picture books, there're also other picture books that cover this territory.
Title: Quest (Journey Trilogy Book 2)
Author: Aaron Becker
Published: Candlewick Press, 2014
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 319,750
Text Number: 1123
Read Because: reading the series, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: Wordless books rely on recognizable tropes and narratives for clarity, but they don't have the means to explore them with nuance. Thus this reiterates everything wrong with the white savoir trope in portal fantasy—in a bland, benign, but uncritical way. The trite ending makes the book feel even more cliché.
But the other trope here is a fantasy map—not usually a trope I care about, but there's no better place for a drawn map than in a world where drawing creates reality. Flipping between the map and the locations is a delight, and that engagement with the art lengthens the hasty plot.
Title: Return (Journey Trilogy Book 3)
Author: Aaron Becker
Published: Candlewick Press, 2016
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 40
Total Page Count: 320,275
Text Number: 1125
Read Because: reading the series, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: I appreciate the inclusion of adults in picture books, particularly as parents participating in their children's adventures. Unfortunately, everything else about this is underwhelming. It borrows too much from Quest, rehashing a similar plot, using the same trite rainbow climax, doubling down on the problem with portal fantasy (feat. "the saviors from our world are better at using portal-world magics than the native inhabitants"). It's not awful, but it's easily the weakest of a middling series, despite the always-gorgeous art; an unfortunate ending.