Books
Kids Fiction & Indies
Kids Fiction
Special Delivery: A Book's Journey Around the World

Special Delivery: A Book's Journey Around the World

4.3

0.0 (0)

419 0

Write Review Add to favorites

Special Delivery: A Book's Journey Around the World

Author(s)

Polly Faber

Co-Authors / Illustrators

Klas Fahlen

Publisher

Candlewick Press

Genre(s)

Age Range

Release Date

April 04, 2023

ISBN

978-1536229851

Buy This Book

This unique story follows the process of making a book from printing to shipping to selling . . . to reading!

This beautifully illustrated picture book shows the journey of one book from printer to reader. Bright, contemporary artwork details the people, the vehicles, and the distance traveled as one book makes it into the hands of a young boy.

Editor review

1 review

Supply Chain Management 101

April 01, 2023 (Updated: April 01, 2023)

Overall rating

4.3

Plot

4.0

Characters

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

5.0

Children who love books and reading will be enthralled with this picture book that shows the process by which books are made and distributed. Jay's birthday is approaching, and far away a book is being made that he will eventually receive. It's printed and boxed, and starts its long journey from overseas to his home. It crosses the seas in a shipping container that gets loaded onto a railroad, and from there gets unboxed and sent by van to a bookstore. Jay's grandmother buys a copy and has it mailed to him, which takes more travel time. Jay, who seems to have an interest in transportation, judging from the toy vehicles in his room, loves the book, and thanks his grandmother for it. At the end of the book, there is additional information involving a lot of numbers. This even mentions the shipping container of rubber duckies that spilled in 1992!

Good Points

While the artistic style of this book evokes the 1960s, it has a much more diverse cast of characters, who have names that match up or rhyme with the jobs they perform. The vehicles have that very boxy, Richard Scary feel to them, and the buildings and landscapes are angular and stylized. There's a lot of orange, and a very pleasant blue in many of the backgrounds, as well as pops of green and red. Even though the illustrations were rendered digitally, they have the look of tissue paper collage, with a light, transparent feeling that is very soothing.

There's just enough text on the page to explain the shipping processes, but not so much that this would be too long a book for reading as a bedtime story repeatedly. Who knows? Perhaps this might start a spark of interest in supply chain management in a toddler!

Aside from Aliki's 1986 book How a Book is Made, I am unfamiliar with other picture books on the process, so this is an excellent book to add to a collection of books about readers, reading, libraries, and other book related issues like Knudsen's Library Lion, Stewart's The Library, or Deedy's The Library Dragon.