A beautiful book that shows the journey that others make to America. One that provides windows and mirrors and one that will be great for immigration stories. I will definitely be adding this to our school library.

Telling the story of 4 children from different backgrounds, A Journey Toward Hope gives an insight into the journeys that many children take in the hopes of reaching a better future in America. Travelling from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, the children meet on a boat and stay together as they journey on toward the Mexican border on the dangerous journey away from everything they know.
Although a work of fiction, this book draws on the true stories of many children who make the journey from central America to the US and tells of some of the things, both good and bad, that they experience on the way. Told sensitively, this book is important in sharing the plight of many children who don't know what they will face when they reach the border.
Beautifully illustrated and told in child friendly language, this would be a great book to use if teaching about immigration and migrants and the experiences they face.
I received an eARC of this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* The art work in this book is breathtaking, Im assuming its easier to read in print and probably so much more detailed as well, really great book with a great story and artwork.

Found it difficult to access the file but from the parts I could download this is a well written story that introduces a necessary topic for discussion with younger children.
Lower star rating purely because of difficulty accessing file.

“A Journey Toward Hope” by Victor Hinojosa and Coert Voorhees is a beautiful children’s picture book. Illustrated in vibrant colors and whimsical images, the story beautifully captures the hope, the hard ache and the courage it takes to make such a treacherous journey. The illustrations help provide visual context to concepts that are often difficult for children who have not experienced any form of migration to understand and a wonderful reflection for those who have undergone such a journey. It is an important story of the American experience and I’m so grateful for such a well crafted picture book to help bring to light to the realities of immigration and how we can all help make people‘s lives better.

A Journey Toward Hope is a wonderful story that is, unfortunately, all too real for hundreds of thousands of children all over the world. Despite their being sadness within the story, it is primarily a story of hope. We follow four children as the make the dangerous journey towards America and the dream of a better and safer life. These children's journey is a mere snapshot of reality for so many children migrating to the US and other countries without their families.

The artwork throughout this book is nothing short of beautiful. The watercolour imagery is absolutely stunning. We explore the surroundings throughout the children's journey with such colour and vibrancy. Each child and their view of the world around them also appears to be represented through different illustrated animals which I thought to be very visually clever.

I believe this book is a fantastic way to introduce immigration and the concept of refugees to children. The story is told in an easy to follow way although I do think it was a bit too fast paced at points and would have liked a little bit extra in between some scenes. However, I adored the fact we got hints towards what the future holds for each of the children in the book and I think that will appeal greatly to other readers to.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book to read and providing me with the opportunity to give my own, honest opinion.

I received this ebook in exchange for an honest and fair review. This book is a wonderful lesson in immigration of children and the difficulty they have as they try to get to the United States in hope of a new more prosperous future. The authors/students and professors at Baylor who researched this topic along with the Illustrator presented a story that is relevant and appropriate to use as a teaching tool in the classroom. They then discuss the premise of the book and how individuals can get involved to help these children. I can imagine that this would be useful in my classroom library.

How do we teach people the importance of empathy for dreamers and immigrants? By telling their stories. We have to see them as real people. We need to see the home they have left behind, their motivations for coming to the US. Simply by showing the dangers they face on the journey before they even get to the border we should get some sense of the urgency of their journey. A person doesn't risk violent death atop a train for casual desires for wealth. And that's what makes this book so valuable. We see them as children, innocent and hopeful.

This is a lovely illustrated book. Whilst the message of this book is important I think the size of the text is too small.

Such an important and inspiring children's book about four kids on their away to America from their homes and the struggles they must go through, maintaining hope along the way.

A Journey Toward Hope is a picture book about 4 children from Central & South America making the journey toward the United States. The story tells of the challenges and obstacles they face and the hope that they hold for their life in America.

The illustrations in the book were beautiful and a bit dreamlike. The story itself was good and got the point across of the challenges they faced without being too graphic. This story book would be good for elementary school aged children. This would be a good pick if trying to educate children about refugees.

I liked how the story described the journey of young migrants. It was a nice story and I enjoyed it.

A Journey Toward Hope is the story of four migrant children traveling from Central America to the US with dreams of a better life. 10-year old Alessandra from Guatemala, 13-year old Laura, and 7-year old Nando from El Salvador and 14-year old Rodrigo from Honduras, each begins the trek for different reasons but band together in hopes of seeing their dreams become a reality.

The illustrations in this book are stunning. Susan Guevara uses watercolors to capture the light of the children's hopes for a better future or experiencing the humanity of others along the way and then darkening to capture their despair when hunger or fear set in. We can see the traces of her connection to Central American folk art through her use of animals to depict the spirit of each character and the use of Mayan glyphs throughout the text.

This book is excellent for introducing young readers to the plight some children face in this world to get the freedoms some take for granted. In some parts along the journey, the author captures a lightness in the mood, which may lead some children to believe it's a fun adventure, so it provides many opportunities to spark conversations about why families make these journeys and the dangers they face along the way. The information in the back of the book offers more accurate information about the experience many migrants face and how we can help.

This is a wonderful story that needs to be told!

It's so lovely that tales like these are getting out and showing the world. While it's a sad tale, it is a very hopeful story. We follow Alessandra as she tries to take a very tough journey. She is a refugee and is trying to get to safety with her family.

I think this is a marvelous way to introduce immigration to children, especially since in my community we have many children who have stories similar to this. I think it tells the story in an easy to follow way and makes it so you feel for the characters. It does make the story way safer and nicer than it (most likely) truly is. That being said, this is a children's picture book so it probably is better it didn't go into the rough depths of these tales.

The pictures are unique, but a little strange with the water colour pictures. They looked kind of weird to me on some of the pages, but I still kind of liked the style. It's a 3/5 for style on my accounts.

Overall, this is an important story and is told beautifully.

Three out of five stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Six Foot Press for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.

I received an electronic ARC from Six Foot Press through NetGalley.
3.5 stars
Sensitive portrayal of four children who seek to come to the United States to escape their situations in Central American countries. They connect along the way and stay together until they get to the Nueve Laredo camp in Laredo, Mexico.
My main concern is the small font size. It is difficult to read and elementary level readers will struggle with this. The message is important and the illustrations are lovely and include plenty of meaning when readers study them closely.
Informative text included at the end as well.

A beautifully illustrated book, highlighting the plight of migrant children and the dangerous journeys that many undertake. A very timely story.

This was by far the cutest and amazing graphic novel I've recently read! I liked everything about it!

A journey towards hope tells the story of 4 children migrating to the US for a better life. This is an important story to tell. I really liked that it is geared towards children so they can understand the world. It's a great boom to read to any child as it isn't too dark or scary.

The illustrations are wonderful and this is an important story that is very close to my heart. I applaud the effort and felt the book had many wonderful moments. I realize the intended audience for the book is very young and therefore the story has been kept simple. But the dangers and hardships the children faced at home were so understated that it was hard to understand why they would leave their families and familiar surroundings. As well, the tremendous difficulties and dangers that 4 children would face on this journey were too understated. I think in an effort to be "age appropriate" the story erred on the side of making the train trip and the whole journey seem almost like a fun adventure. I wish the author had put in a few more details, to make the journey a little more realistic. But I do appreciate that the book exists! And with lots of parental or teacher intervention and discussion, I think it fills a need.

This is a journey toward hope on many levels. The vivid , complex illustrations offer depth and multiple perspectives to this story. We see an illustrative style that evokes the past in floaty, ethereal, sometimes diminutive images, or the future in bright clear line drawings based on Mayan glyphs, full of cultural meaning and significance. The symbolism of light, butterflies, shapes, shadows, size adds richly to the spare text so that together a powerful tale unfolds.. The information text brings home the real-life context and demonstrates that, even in an apparently hopeless situation, hope energises, sustains and is good for the soul.