Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Journey Trilogy #1-3

Journey trilogy aaron becker 3 books collection set

Rate this book
Get swept away on a breathtaking journey. . . . Now you can experience the entire trilogy by Caldecott Honoree Aaron Becker in one beautiful boxed set.

An ordinary child steps through a portal into a luminous and magical landscape, beginning her quest toward an uncertain destiny. In this special boxed set, three connected, wordless tales showcase the exquisite imagination and artistry of Aaron Becker, whose auspicious debut, Journey, was awarded a Caldecott Honor. Included in this slipcased collection is a never-before-published print by the artist featuring characters from the series. Enclosed are the books Journey, Quest, and Return.

Paperback

First published November 7, 2017

3 people are currently reading
165 people want to read

About the author

Aaron Becker

13 books415 followers
Aaron Becker has worked as an artist for such film studios as Lucasfilm, Disney, and Pixar, where he helped define the look and feel of characters, stories, and the movies they become a part of. With Journey, he has created characters and worlds of his very own, using traditional materials and techniques. Aaron Becker lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, with his wife, daughter, and cat. This is his first book.

"I’ve made several memorable journeys in my lifetime. I’ve lived in rural Japan and East Africa and backpacked through the South Pacific and Sweden. But to this day, my favorite destination remains my imagination, where you can often find me drawing secret doorways and magic lanterns." — Aaron Becker

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
120 (80%)
4 stars
26 (17%)
3 stars
3 (2%)
2 stars
1 (<1%)
1 star
0 (0%)
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
273 reviews29 followers
December 6, 2020
Reminds me of a textless, more colorful, realistic, modern and sort of steampunk version of Harold and the Purple Pen.
Profile Image for David Cluett.
92 reviews1 follower
October 23, 2019
Fantastic and breathtaking. A perfect trilogy of books with each adding their own brilliant layer to a creative and colourful story. Wordless picture books require fantastic illustrations. Wordless trilogies require exceptional illustrations in order to keep the reader captivated and not feel lost without text. This story delivers that and more. A thousand words in each page of this book and not a word to be seen. The only gripe I have with this story is that it is damn hard to stop reading! There is so much to lose yourself in this trilogy, I only wish there were more but maybe there only being 3 makes each book even more amazing.
433 reviews3 followers
May 17, 2025
The trilogy starts with a young girl sitting forlornly on the steps to her home. She gets up and goes into the house leaving her bright red scooter on the front steps. In the house she finds her mother cooking and talking on the telephone so she goes upstairs where she finds her father engrossed at his computer. Even her older sister is no help as she sits on the couch reading a book. The little girl plops down on her bed in despair, but when her cat moves to the door and leaves, she sees something red on the floor. It is a red marker and soon the girl is drawing on her wall. What she creates is a door that opens to another world with trees and lights as well as a river. The girl lies down on a pier and since she still has the red marker in her hands, she begins to draw a red boat. Where will it take her? Who will she meet during her adventure...an adventure that lasts through three pictures books.
Profile Image for Betsy Ellor.
Author 2 books15 followers
October 7, 2019
This series is a must! For young children reading stories with no words is inspiring. They get to use analysis and imagination and you bond as you make up the words together looking at the pictures. Rich illustrations like these are something the children can study even when you aren't reading to them which gives them their first experience of sitting independently discovering a book - an experience that empowers them even before they begin literacy.

Aaron Becker is a master of the craft and the stories are as compelling as the illustrations are stunning.
Profile Image for Lora.
1,054 reviews13 followers
July 7, 2023
Exceptional story telling- without the words. Fun and detailed artwork lends a rich setting to this story of a young girl on a quest and the several trials by heartfire that she faces.
A bit of Harold and the Purple Crayon, Narnia, and I can't even remember how many other bits of great lit came to mind as I 'read' this book. Then I went back and read them again- this time in the right order. Made so much more sense! Don't make my mistake. But these do lend themselves to repeat reads, a great way to earn 5 stars in my book.
Profile Image for Amritesh.
496 reviews34 followers
May 13, 2025
A wordless adventure trilogy told through lush, cinematic illustrations, the story follows a young girl who escapes into a vivid fantasy world by drawing a door with a red crayon. Each book expands the world further, from floating cities and forested airships to mysterious underwater kingdoms, with storytelling driven entirely by colour, perspective, and movement. It's a masterclass in visual imagination, inviting self-interpretation of events and teaching narrative comprehension through images alone.
Profile Image for Jennifer.
2,471 reviews68 followers
September 7, 2019
A young girl finds her family distracted with other tasks. So, she draws a door in her bedroom wall that leads her on a path to a fantastic adventure to so many amazing places.

I adore picture books without words! Lush, gorgeous illustrations lead readers on a voyage sure to spark creativity and imagination. Let the artwork tell the story – or, even better, young readers can fill-in so much more themselves.
116 reviews1 follower
Read
November 18, 2020
Hi, everyone!
I'm working for a Russian website dedicated to children's books and children's reading Papmambook.ru. We've been building the English version of the website. Recently we've published a review of The Journey trilogy, where the author talks about how the books encouraged her son to write by hand.
Profile Image for Bella.
755 reviews15 followers
January 29, 2019
These three books are wordless, instead they tell their story through the most gorgeous illustrations.

A lonely girl finds a red crayon which allows her to draw things that become real, she draws a door and off she goes into a different world. Beautiful stories of friendship and imagination. My seven year old loves reading these and making up the story to follow the pictures.
Profile Image for Lia Petrosian.
7 reviews
January 8, 2020
Amazing trilogy aimed to boost children’s imagination by letting them tell the story in their own way looking at Aaron Becker’s amazing illustrations. They are detailed enough to give their fantasy room, but not overwhelming so even the younger children can immerse themselves into the magical adventures of a lonely girl that started with a stroke of a pencil.
Profile Image for Jonathan Davenport.
14 reviews1 follower
April 23, 2023
Absolutely beautiful stories, lots to discover and discuss. No words at all which leaves you open to interpretation and enables anyone to enjoy the stories. Each one with a different theme but all as accessible. I’m going to be looking at these more in my year 2 placement but my daughter looked at them in year 6 and was very excited to read them again.
22 reviews
September 24, 2020
This makes such as excellent follow on from the previous books in the collection. The children may be aware of the style of book now and you can allow them more freedom and interpretation with the book. It allows opportunities for cross curricular activities such as drama too.
Profile Image for Neville.
19 reviews1 follower
March 13, 2021
This is beyond fantastic! It’s really a very, very wonderful set of books and a huge reward to the careful reader.

I’m reviewing the three books separately but I’m just here to say: if you’re wondering about reading these books, please do.
Profile Image for Laszlo.
129 reviews2 followers
December 1, 2022
Deze tekstloze prentenboeken zijn perfect voor creatieve schrijfopdrachten en het triggeren van de fantasie. Los daarvan is het genieten zelf om door deze boeken te bladeren en te verdwalen tussen de bladzijdes.
28 reviews
March 2, 2025
This book features beautiful illustrations with vibrant colours, much detail, and unique angles. The different locations are magical, I was fully absorbed by the unique landscape of this book. The story is adorable, the journey lovely, no words needed!
Profile Image for Jane Karen.
Author 1 book1 follower
June 23, 2019
Loved the concept and pictures, literally saw my 5 year old’s eyes widened. Can’t wait to read the next two in the series!
8 reviews
March 8, 2023
Breathtaking artwork that drives such a tender visual storytelling. Add it to your home library and enjoy time and again.
27 reviews
July 15, 2024
I absolutely loved these books. They were fantastical, easy to follow, and beautiful! Would recommend and read again.
263 reviews
December 19, 2019
This is an absolutely gorgeous set of books and I wish someone would make this into a motion picture with an epic score and no words as in keeping with these beautiful wordless picture books!

The first book, Journey, covers a bored girl with a red crayon who draws a door that leads her to another world. When she gets to a river she draws a boat which takes her to an elaborate canal filled city. She creates a hot air balloon with her red crayon and flies high in the sky and sees a flying boat among the clouds and a beautiful purple bird who is captured by officers on this flying boat.she frees the bird but is captured by the guards and loses her crayon as it falls off the flying boat. She is caged but the purple bird appears holding her crayon in its mouth. She uses it to make a flying carpet and the bird leads her to a small purple door in the trunk of a palm tree. As they exit the door they come to a young boy with a purple crayon and together they cycle off.

The second book, Quest, starts where the previous book left off with our kids on their bike with one red and one purple tire. However it starts to rain and the seek cover under a bridge in a park. Suddenly a king appears. He has an orange crown and orange crayon or chalk. He shows them a piece of paper - aa map with colored circles on it. He gives the girl a belt that goes from her shoulder to her hip across her body like a sash and has pockets that would fit the chalk or crayons they all three carry. Suddenly two guards come a pull the king away he crops his orange chalk and the door is slammed shut behind him and the guards but the kids draw keys that unlock the doors and they are once again in the magical world. They consult their map and see that one of the places they need to go is under water. So the girl draws diving equipment and the boy an octopus and they dive in. The octopus drags them both to a city where they find a yellow chalk. Next they get to land and draw a rhino to carry them to a city (that looks somewhat Mayan). They cross a rope bridge and find a green crayon. Next the boy draws a dragonfly and the girl a swing and they escape just before the guards can grab them. They go no e mountains and find a blue crayon. The guards are on top of them and they are about to be captured but the purple bird flies off with the belt of chalk creating a brilliant rainbow in his wake. The rainbow goes from the mountain top to the boat where the king was being held hostage. The king having now been freed leads the kids in a parade through the canal city and the rhino, dragonfly, bird and octopus are all there. The king draws them both orange crowns and sends them back home where they see a rainbow over their great city.

The third book, Return, has the girl once again bored and this time feeling ignored by her father so she returns to her magical world. But her father realizing she is missing finds the door and then sees a red ball by the river. A strange river craft approaches with a dragons head. He gets on the boat still holding the ball. It leads him to the canal city where he can see his daughter in a red boat under the moonlight. He reaches the girl who is with the king and the boy, but she wants nothing to do with her father. Suddenly the evil guards return. The king draws an orange sword, but they have a box which sucks up all the crayons and kidnap the king once again. The boy draws a purple griffin but the guards use the box again and the griffin is reduced to feathers swooped up into the box. As the fall the boy is captured but the father and girl are together and when they fall into a body of water the girl draws a red submarine that leads them to a cave surrounded by rock art. They see one picture on the wall that gives them an idea. The father draws a trap around the purple bird and when an evil guard arrives and tries to suck i into the box he gets caught in the trap and the dad throws down the box, breaking it and releasing all the color inside. The girl gives her dad a hug and they head home to fly a kite (the thing she had been waiting impatiently to do on page one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Bella.
755 reviews15 followers
January 29, 2019
These three books are wordless, instead they tell their story through the most gorgeous illustrations.

A lonely girl finds a red crayon which allows her to draw things that become real, she draws a door and off she goes into a different world. Beautiful stories of friendship and imagination. My seven year old loves reading these and making up the story to follow the pictures.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.