Aaron Becker
Author of Journey
Series
Works by Aaron Becker
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1974
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Pomona College, California
Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design - Occupations
- writer
illustrator
artist for Pixar, Disney, Lucasfilm
film designer
art teacher
camp counselor (show all 7)
graphic designer - Relationships
- Wife, daughter
- Short biography
- Born in Baltimore, Aaron Becker moved to California to attend Pomona College where he scored his first illustration job designing t-shirts for his water polo team. Since then, he's traveled to Kenya, Japan, Sweden, and Tahiti backpacking around while looking for good things to eat and feeding his imagination. He now lives with his family in Amherst, MA where he's busy at work on his next book project. You can find out more about what he's been up to lately at storybreathing.com. [retrieved 7/20/2019 from Amazon.com]
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Baltimore, Maryland, USA
- Places of residence
- Amherst, Massachusetts, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
This wordless flight of fancy by Becker tells the story of NOA, a giant robot struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic landscape. As his world becomes more environmentally ravaged and the seas rise, threatening to drown all life, he constructs an ark to save all the pairs of animals he can gather.
NOA goes around collecting different species (whom he dwarfs), and though his vessel is destroyed in a storm, he and the animals end up ship-wrecked but safe on a barren island. They are then show more rescued by a second robot, who arrives in a giant balloon and takes all of them to a paradisiacal setting under a rainbow, signifying the promise of a new beginning.
The epigram by Jane Goodall illustrates Becker’s message about the need to protect and preserve the Earth:
“Only if we understand, can we care. Only if we care, will we help. Only if we help, shall all be saved.”
Like Becker’s earlier book The Tree and the River, in this book too we see loss and despair transformed by hope, determination, and ingenuity into rescue and renewal.
The author/illustrator uses pen-and-ink drawings painted over with watercolor to show elephants, pandas, tigers, lions, and other animals young readers will be familiar with. As always with his books, the landscapes are wondrous: intricately drawn, somewhat medieval, and somewhat steampunk. Thus not only does the book’s lack of words allow readers to fill in the story with their imaginations, but the breadth and depth of the illustrations encourage it as well.
The pictures in this book are not as simple to analyze as some wordless books, so it asks readers to concentrate and ponder. Younger readers can still enjoy this book on a purely visual level at the very least, and those not as adept at reading words will discover just how much they can figure out by other means.
Evaluation: This book, recommended for ages 4 and up, will be enjoyable for all ages to explore together. show less
NOA goes around collecting different species (whom he dwarfs), and though his vessel is destroyed in a storm, he and the animals end up ship-wrecked but safe on a barren island. They are then show more rescued by a second robot, who arrives in a giant balloon and takes all of them to a paradisiacal setting under a rainbow, signifying the promise of a new beginning.
The epigram by Jane Goodall illustrates Becker’s message about the need to protect and preserve the Earth:
“Only if we understand, can we care. Only if we care, will we help. Only if we help, shall all be saved.”
Like Becker’s earlier book The Tree and the River, in this book too we see loss and despair transformed by hope, determination, and ingenuity into rescue and renewal.
The author/illustrator uses pen-and-ink drawings painted over with watercolor to show elephants, pandas, tigers, lions, and other animals young readers will be familiar with. As always with his books, the landscapes are wondrous: intricately drawn, somewhat medieval, and somewhat steampunk. Thus not only does the book’s lack of words allow readers to fill in the story with their imaginations, but the breadth and depth of the illustrations encourage it as well.
The pictures in this book are not as simple to analyze as some wordless books, so it asks readers to concentrate and ponder. Younger readers can still enjoy this book on a purely visual level at the very least, and those not as adept at reading words will discover just how much they can figure out by other means.
Evaluation: This book, recommended for ages 4 and up, will be enjoyable for all ages to explore together. show less
Once again feeling ignored at home, the young girl who first appeared in Aaron Becker's Journey and Quest uses her magic red marker to open a portal into the magical kingdom she visited in those earlier books. This time, however, her father does notice her absence, and follows her into the enchanted parallel world. Although she refuses at first to have anything to do with him, no doubt feeling hurt at his perceived neglect, the girl is won over when her father joins in her adventure, helping show more her to escape the soldiers who have ambushed her friends, the king and boy who also featured in Quest. His assistance, and creative use of his black marker (or pencil?) help to win the day, and restore the glorious magical colored markers, thereby freeing the king and boy. Father and daughter return to their own world, where they head off to fly a kite together...
Every bit as engaging as its predecessors, this wordless picture-book offers a heartwarming conclusion to the magical saga begun in Journey. It feels appropriate that a story which began with a bored child who felt neglected, concluded with that boredom and feeling of neglect being recognized and remedied by a loving adult. I thought it was interesting that the father, who appears to be an architect or something of that sort - he is shown working in his home office at the beginning of the book - is able to contribute to the magic with his black marker/pencil, as this seems to hint at the idea that it is not the color of the markers used throughout the trilogy that is significant, but rather the creative imagination of those wielding them. That said, Return is a marvelously colorful book, and the artwork, done in watercolor, pen and ink, is more than equal to carrying the story. Recommended to anyone looking for wordless picture-books, or who enjoyed the first two books in Becker's Journey trilogy. show less
Every bit as engaging as its predecessors, this wordless picture-book offers a heartwarming conclusion to the magical saga begun in Journey. It feels appropriate that a story which began with a bored child who felt neglected, concluded with that boredom and feeling of neglect being recognized and remedied by a loving adult. I thought it was interesting that the father, who appears to be an architect or something of that sort - he is shown working in his home office at the beginning of the book - is able to contribute to the magic with his black marker/pencil, as this seems to hint at the idea that it is not the color of the markers used throughout the trilogy that is significant, but rather the creative imagination of those wielding them. That said, Return is a marvelously colorful book, and the artwork, done in watercolor, pen and ink, is more than equal to carrying the story. Recommended to anyone looking for wordless picture-books, or who enjoyed the first two books in Becker's Journey trilogy. show less
Another wordless wonder from Aaron Becker, this time over a long span of time - hundreds of years? - as a peaceful bend in the river sees human civilizations rise and fall. Careful readers will notice the importance of bridges and walls, flags and banners, vehicles (boats, cars, trains, flying craft) as clues to tell whether the people on either side of the river are peaceful or fighting, whether they are taking care of the natural world or destroying it. In the end, an acorn falls from the show more titular oak tree, and a new sapling sprouts at the next bend in the river. Thoughtful, historical, atmospheric, sad, hopeful. show less
The eponymous tree and river coexist—sometimes peacefully and sometimes not—with a series of human settlements in this wordless picture book from Aaron Becker, perhaps best known for his Caldecott Honor-winning Journey, and its two sequels, which also present a wordless narrative. Villages and cities rise and fall, the river is diverted and used in various ways and the tree grows, changes and eventually comes to near destruction, until finally it produces an acorn and a new tree arises, show more by the banks of that same river...
When I first read the premise of The Tree and the River I was reminded of such picture books as Debbie Atwell's River and Lynne Cherry's A River Ran Wild, both of which follow the story of a river over time, as the world changes around it. But having now read (or scanned, as the case may be) Becker's book, and noted again the similar theme in the process, I think it is more speculative in nature than those earlier books, imagining greater stretches of time, and proceeding into the future rather than just observing the past. It is also somewhat more disturbing and less hopeful. While the final scenes here do posit a future for the tree and river, as well as an interaction with people, some of the preceding scenes are so apocalyptic that one wonders whether the message taken away will be that nature can recover, that it will outlast us, or that we are inherently destructive to it. I appreciated the illustrations here—always important in a wordless picture book!—and I appreciated the themes explored, but I also found myself wondering whether the book would provoke thoughtful consideration or just despair in its young audience. Psychologists have recently begun diagnosing an increasingly widespread neurosis in children, known as climate or eco-anxiety, and it feels as if titles like this would contribute to that, in that they present truly disturbing ecological scenarios, with little hope or sense that humans can do better. It's true that two people visit the newly sprouted tree at the end—but does this mean humanity has changed? Or will the cycle continue? Whatever may have been intended by the creator, I'm not sure the reader will take much away here, aside from the fact that Becker is a talented artist. While visually lovely (hence, the three stars), this is not one I would strongly recommend, save to fans of this creator. show less
When I first read the premise of The Tree and the River I was reminded of such picture books as Debbie Atwell's River and Lynne Cherry's A River Ran Wild, both of which follow the story of a river over time, as the world changes around it. But having now read (or scanned, as the case may be) Becker's book, and noted again the similar theme in the process, I think it is more speculative in nature than those earlier books, imagining greater stretches of time, and proceeding into the future rather than just observing the past. It is also somewhat more disturbing and less hopeful. While the final scenes here do posit a future for the tree and river, as well as an interaction with people, some of the preceding scenes are so apocalyptic that one wonders whether the message taken away will be that nature can recover, that it will outlast us, or that we are inherently destructive to it. I appreciated the illustrations here—always important in a wordless picture book!—and I appreciated the themes explored, but I also found myself wondering whether the book would provoke thoughtful consideration or just despair in its young audience. Psychologists have recently begun diagnosing an increasingly widespread neurosis in children, known as climate or eco-anxiety, and it feels as if titles like this would contribute to that, in that they present truly disturbing ecological scenarios, with little hope or sense that humans can do better. It's true that two people visit the newly sprouted tree at the end—but does this mean humanity has changed? Or will the cycle continue? Whatever may have been intended by the creator, I'm not sure the reader will take much away here, aside from the fact that Becker is a talented artist. While visually lovely (hence, the three stars), this is not one I would strongly recommend, save to fans of this creator. show less
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Wordless Books (3)
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- 12
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- Rating
- 4.4
- Reviews
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