The Journey - Francesca Sanna

What is 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.

A beautifully illustrated story of adventure, fear, love and the search for home that is not only a joy to read and discover but a poignant and significant book for our times.

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 centre 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.’

The debut picture book from Italian author Francesca Sanna, The Journey has been translated in multiple languages, and has been awarded with the gold medal of the Society of Illustrators (US) and the Premi Llibreter (Spain).