No. 65 - The Way Back Home

Hi all, I'm a few days late i'm afraid. Not the best start to a new routine! Anyway, a quick note about this post. I started writing it way before this isolation malarkey started and funnily enough some of the points I make feel very valid for right now. So let's heed the wise words of Oliver Jeffers, and take heart from the Martian and the boy.

I love a picture book, and this one is no exception! It even had me feeling a bit teary at times! 

Oliver Jeffers is a master of the picture book genre, and The Way Back Home is a beautiful, enchanting tale of intergalactic friendship, teamwork and motor mechanics! For me this book is also a story about equality, anxiety, and hope in the darkest of times. Let me tell you all about it.  

The boy (who you may recognise from some of Jeffer's other books) finds an aeroplane in a cupboard and takes it for a spin. However, he makes a major error and ends up stuck on the moon with no fuel! Silly boy! Elsewhere in the galaxy, a Martian is having a bit of a 'mare too. The engine of his spaceship is failing, and he has to land on the moon asap! Both stranded at each end of the moon, they begin to get very worried. 

They both believe that they are all alone and something nasty is going to loom out of the darkness and get them! They are in one of  those horrid 'what if' situations that we all feel at various times in our lives. Stranded, alone, and in the dark, they fear the worst. But luckily they are not alone!

Very cleverly Jeffer's uses the situation to explain a fundamental point, that in life we are never truly alone. There will always be someone going through the same thing as you, or experiencing the same feelings. Whether this is in childhood or adulthood, the point is the same, you are not the first person to have been through this. The Martian and the boy are a literal example of this. They are both very anxious about the position they had found themselves in, but to know someone else is experiencing the same problem gives them reassurance. For children, this is a reassuring thing to know, and let me tell you, as an adult it helps too!

The boy and the Martian eschew their own worries to help each other, and work together as a team to try and plan their way back home. This unlikely friendship between boy and alien is a delight, and I particularly like the illustration below, where you can see their plans coming together through a variety of gestures and drawings. I like to think that they can't speak each other's languages and this is their best method of communication. There is no language barrier here! The boy and the Martian are not interested in that, they are united in their mission to get off the moon. There is a childhood innocence to this. Play and imagination are universal languages, they pay no attention to race or culture. If you put two children together who speak different languages they will ultimately find a way to communicate and play together, and that, I think, is what's happening here. It's hidden moral message, help others, no matter what their background may be.

As I've already explained, this book takes a clever and fresh look at the subconscious worries we all have on various levels as humans. The fear of the unknown, the fear of the dark, of being stranded all alone. Another example of this is the boy's connection with his home. It is very easy for the boy to fly to the moon, much easier than you might think (ignore all your physics knowledge), but once he is stuck up there home suddenly seems very far away, and getting back seems impossible. I think this eludes to the idea that a problem always seems so much bigger when you are in the middle of it. However, once the Martian arrives and he has company, the boy feels much less anxious, and the idea of popping home to get supplies is as simple as popping around the corner! He parachutes back down to earth, and home again. What was he so worried about!? He's even so relaxed that he has a rest in his favourite chair! However, this is short lived when he remembers his new friend stuck up on the moon! The boy could have stayed put, he was home, he was comfy, but he knew he still had to rescue the Martian. He is selfless, not selfish. Another cheeky, secret moral message! 

You'll  be pleased to know that it all ends well for the Martian and the boy. The Martian fills the plane's petrol tank, and the boy fixes the Martian's engine, and they both go home safely. Hooray! This book is a delight from start to finish. Jeffer's distinctive illustrations create wonderful characters, that you just can't help but fall in love with. Despite being just a child, and an alien they speak hugely about the human condition, in a really touching way. The unity and equality portrayed in this book makes me incredibly happy! Maybe I've read too much into it, but I feel like there is a lot to be learnt from this book, and not just for children.

Thanks for reading, L x

PS. Next up is Michael Rosen's science and technology poems collection, Centrally Heated Knickers!