The Way Back Home (Read aloud by Paul McGann)
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5.0 • 6 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
This is a read-along edition with audio synced to the text, performed by Paul McGann.
An exciting intergalactic adventure from shining star Oliver Jeffers, creator of Lost and Found.
One day a boy finds an aeroplane in his cupboard. Up, up, up and away he flies, high into the sky. Whizzing past clouds, stars and planets until suddenly, he runs out of petrol!
Miles from earth, the boy crashes into the moon and waits. Just as he is beginning to get cold and lonely, a friendly martian appears from the darkness, also with a broken aircraft.
Together they come up with a super plan to float the boy back down to earth to collect his toolbox.
Can the boy find his way back home safely and will he ever make it back up to the moon to rescue his friend?
Reviews
Praise for ‘The Incredible Book Eating Boy’
"Mouth-wateringly irresistible" The Guardian
Praise for ‘Lost and Found’:
‘An uplifting story…pictures of such spare beauty…suffused with a dreamlike quality.’ Independent Online
‘Oliver Jeffers makes impressive use of space in this affecting story of friendship…illustrations capture feelings of loss and loneliness through the most delicate nuances of facial expression…and body language.’ Julia Eccleshare, The Guardian
Praise for ‘How to Catch a Star’:
‘The best recent picture book by light years… stylishly spellbinding.’ Telegraph
‘A story about possibilities and disappointments with a triumphant ending, all of which Jeffers captures through the beautifully expressive changing moods of his little boy.’ The Guardian
About the author
Oliver Jeffers is a storyteller of a generation. He has won several high-profile awards, including Time Magazine's Book of the Year, the Smarties Prize Gold Award, the Blue Peter Book of the Year and the Irish Children's. He is a New York Times bestselling author. He splits his time between Brooklyn and Belfast.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Jeffers's (The Incredible Book Eating Boy) arrestingly illustrated book begins with the creation of a spare watercolor world "a single, nameless boy on a deserted beach. Quickly the story takes a surprising turn: the boy finds an airplane in his closet and crashes it on the moon. When he's joined by a similarly stranded Martian, the two strangers hatch a scrappy plan for rescue, suggesting a moral: it's good to work together. After the unusual narrative leaps at the beginning of the story, the message feels a little forced, and it's less fun than expected. Even so, a quality reminiscent of TheLittle Princecomes through, not just in the lone boy/outer-space setting, but in the balance between the humor in the predicament and loneliness. These two emotions are matched perfectly by the mixed-media art. Colorful figures swim in vast amounts of negative space, isolated and a bit melancholy, but their postures and faces are playful, almost comic. An odd scale and lopsided figures suggest a world off-kilter, while silly monsters and impossible feats keep things light. With uneven graphite outlines on watercolor-soaked paper that reveals the grain of the paper, the overall effect is tactile, textured and even a little childlike. Ages 4-up.
