Jake’s Journey

This was a fun, short children's book with a great moral too! A good book to use with children in lessons such as PSHE where it would be good at promoting discussion about disability, inclusion and how we can impact the world and make our world a better place. It has some great values and tackles important social issues in a positive, well-written manner to convey to younger children.

The illustrations in the book are gorgeous, really detailed and in a fun, slightly abstract style whilst still remaining quite realistic. The font used is interesting, clearly legible and the mixed use of making some of the texts bold added extra emphasis to important parts of the story. I loved that some of the book was written in rhyme, it made it much more fun to read and gave the book a nice rhythm and flow to it too!

Parents, grandparents, teachers, too – please share this delightful book Getting children to read, discuss and take a good look At this fantastic story, told throughout in rhyme About Jake’s adventure and how he spent his time Making a difference to the lives of children who are ill Helping them feel much better without taking a pill A heartwarming, inspirational tale to encourage us all To listen closely and answer the call It makes you think how you can find your own way To make this – for everyone – a much better day!

Jake’s Journey by Debbie Dunlap Jake watches Carly go to school everyday. He can't come. It's boring at home. Oh, look, we managed to get the door open enough to get out...

Dunlap & Dunlap Publishing and Net Galley allowed me to review this book (thank you). It has been published, so you can grab a copy now.

Jake is doing real good until he gets to a Y in the road. Should he go left or right? My favorite part is when a nurse finds him in the bushes and takes him in the hospital with her. He gets to visit all the sick kids and they are all thrilled to have him there. He knows when to be calm, when he can lick them, and when a hug is all that is needed.

When Carly goes to look for him, she realizes the hospital would be a cool place and that's where she finds Jake. She also learns about how, with very little effort, he was able to help those sick folk. Best of all, she learns she could help, too.

Just stretch a bit and do something nice for someone; it will make the world a better place.

I applaud Debbie Dunlap for this refreshing and useful children's book - and that's not because she's a fellow Texas resident! No, honest, it isn't! Not only was it multicultural, and the story both a very positive and a truly functional one, but she was quite obviously inspired to have chosen such innovative artists to illustrate it, too.

If I had a complaint it was with the technical difficulty in reading it on Adobe Reader - the book was too big for it to handle! Maybe that's a positive thing?! The text was out of alignment with the page illustrations, and seemed to be sliding off to the right like it was trying to get away from the dog - but the dog was perfectly sweet, so I don't know what the text's problem was.... What's that lyric to Common People? "...watch your life slide out of view"?!

Seriously, I could not read the last word or two in some sentences. I'm guessing this was simply an issue with the format and the final version will be much-improved. Maybe it would be better on an iPad or some other tablet, but to be truly safe - go with ye olde tyme printe booke and really enjoy the excellent texture. Sometimes technology has a lot further to go than we think it has, huh? I blame Microsoft whether they deserve it or not!

That minor quibble aside, the story was remarkable. A dog, missing his friend when she goes off to school for the day, decides to try to find her, and ends up in a hospital where the resident kids find him a fun companion for the day, and he's reunited with his pet human after all, so that's perfect.

I loved that this felt natural - like it might happen (hey maybe!) and that everyone was included. It felt warm and normal, and right, and you can't ask for better than that. No, really, you can't!

So the story alone would have been inspirational and thought-provoking for any child, but the artwork took it to another level. It has a curious 3D quality to it, but not in the way we've come to think of 3D today. It looked like Lara Agulto and Monica Delgado (they put the O! in artwork) modeled the characters from clay and then photographed them against construction-paper cut-outs for backgrounds. This is something children (with appropriate supervision!) could do themselves. They could copy the illustrations from the book in the same way and emulate this very story. How cool is that? (For the calorific-ally-challenged, that's very cool!).

But I ramble interminably. It was that good. Fresh and inventive. I would have loved this as a kid to the point where it rapidly became more dog-eared than the actual dog (whose photograph is included in the book!) and so worn-out that we would have needed a new one in short-order! So yes, of course I recommend it!.

This is a clever tale with a wonderful message about empathy and the power of each of us to make a difference in our world!