Degrees of Affection

I decided to read both of these books together and greatly enjoyed seeing the extended storyline come to fruition. In Journey, a young girl, sitting alone in her her room, sees a red crayon and draws her way into a new and magical world. ON a variety of transports, she makes her way, discovers beautiful places as well as danger, meets a new friend, and has an adventure. In Quest, the boy she meets at the the end of the previous book is pulled with her into the magical realm by a King wielding a yellow crayon. Thus begins a frantic quest across the magical land to collect the different colored crayons. While using their specific colored ones to make their way, the children are chased by the same man in Samurai-esque armor the girl escaped in the first book.

I can't describe to you how wondrously complex, colorful, and beautiful the illustrations are. You simply have to experience them yourself. There is no text but you don't need any. The main events are obvious and easily understood yet there is so much more going on. It was the details that held me enraptured for longer then any text could have. Though I shouldn't I loved the steampunk airships the villain used to get around. The statuary at the beginning of the second book all look exactly as they should...until you notice that each is dramatically holding aloft a crayon! I also loved the diverse areas we see in Quest. There's everything from an underwater Atlantis to the top of a snowy mountain.

I noticed something though and I have a hypothesis. The boy the girl met after her adventures has a purple colored crayon. Why purple? It could have been any color. I believe, as I did when I first noticed him in Journey, he's an older Harold from Harold and the Purple Crayon. It's such a well-known children's book and one can't help but think of it when reading these books. I have no proof but ti's an interesting idea, huh?