The Trip

This story is about the loneliness of moving to a new place for a child and that you can make friends any were you go. very homesick, like most children would experience, Louie finds a way to cope, by making a shoe box model of where he used to live. But soon, Louie will discover that he doesn't need to use his imagination to find friends. He finds them in his new neighborhood.
Ages 4-8

When Louie’s family moves to a new neighborhood, he has to leave his old friends behind. Feeling sad and lonely, Louie creates a magical scene inside a shoebox—a tiny diorama that calls his imagination back to old friends and old times. But then the spell ends, and a real-life adventure begins as Louie joins some new friends for Halloween night.

I liked this book for a few reasons. I thought that the plot was inventive, and may inspire young readers to try to problem solve. The main character experiences a few emotions that are relatively difficult for children to personally know how to handle, and I think that they can easily see themselves in Louie. I thought that the illustrations were amazing; the collage of paper and painting flowed elegantly throughout the book. The central message of this book revolves around not being afraid of new places, but also remembering your good friends when you're forced to leave them behind.

Louie is a special child, with a terrific imagination and, perhaps, a neurodivergency. This series about him is making me sniffle. I'm going to have to read more books by Keats to find out if Louie shows up in them.

Great book, I had never read a Keats book where the main character was not African-American. I was happy to see multicultural characters through out the book as well. I think it was great how Keats was able to take a snapshot of one moment in time when a child day dreams.

The Trip features a boy named Louie who suffers from loneliness as he moves to a new town. This character can be a great role model for children going through the same experience. Louie uses his imagination to overcome his loneliness to pretend to make transportation to go back to his old neighborhood. Louie ends up coming back into the "real world" when his doorbell rings with trick-or-treaters who invite him to join them. This book can give children hope about being the "new kid" and also enourage students to reach out to "new kids" in class.

The young main character in this story has to come to terms with moving away from his neighborhood. In his imagination he is able to keep his old friends close to heart, while making new friends in his new neighborhood. Typical of Keats' books, he uses the collage style illustrations which are vibrant and colorful. He also integrates photographs into his illustrations. Using childlike drawings transports the reader into the imagination of a small child. This story can help children to understand and overcome the challenge of moving to a new home because it deals with this common childhood problem. Once again this book lends itself to beginning readers because of the appropriate text to illustration ratio.