The Journey

...a wonderful teaching tool for those who are welcoming refugees into their community. — The New York Times

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.

From the author: The Journey is actually a story about many journeys, and it began with the story of two girls I met in a refugee center in Italy. After meeting them I realized that behind their journey lay something very powerful. So I began collecting more stories of migration and interviewing many people from many different countries. A few months later, in September 2014, when I started studying a Master of Arts in Illustration at the Academy of Lucerne, I knew I wanted to create a book about these true stories. Almost every day on the news we hear the terms migrants and refugees but we rarely ever speak to or hear the personal journeys that they have had to take. This book is a collage of all those personal stories and the incredible strength of the people within them.

“Given the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe and immigration debates in the U.S. and abroad, Sanna's story is well poised to spark necessary conversations about the costs of war.” Publisher's Weekly (Starred Review)

“Simultaneously heartbreaking, scary, and brightly hopeful, this timely tale with simply captivating artwork will spur little ones to ask questions that lack easy answers.” Booklist (Starred Review)

“A necessary, artful, and searing story.” Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

“Gorgeously stylized, spare and powerful.” Shelf Awareness (Starred Review)

“The crisp blend of realistic and fantastical illustrations in Sanna's debut picture book impart as much content and emotional depth as its carefully woven text narrated by an anonymous child….Timely and beautiful.” School Library Journal (Starred Review)

“Sanna's stylized illustrations, with gargantuan villains and swirling inky black, are both captivating and unsettling.” The Horn Book (Starred Review)

Francesca Sanna 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.