Chinese pictogram writing for an adventure story.
CLEL winner 2024 ( )

Grandpa shows Lulu how to write ancient Chinese characters in calligraphy, but when Lulu draws the character for "door," it transports her and her dog Dumpling into "a village of Chinese characters." They have an exciting adventure there, then draw another door to return to Grandpa's.

The book's design is deeply thoughtful. At the upper edges of each page is a red square, like a stamp, with a labeled symbol used on that page (e.g. fire, mountain, door). Some pages have sequential art in loose panels surrounded by air frames; Lulu and her dog frequently break out of these. On another page, when Lulu draws the character for "river," the whole double-page-spread is one full-bleed illustration. The art was made with watercolor, colored pencil, and Chinese ink, with hand lettering.

Back matter: Author's note. Front matter: a brief history of oracle bone inscriptions, and a glossary of images carved on oracle bones (boat, cloud, dog, fire, house, sun, etc.)

See also: Journey by Aaron Becker; Drawn Together by Minh Le and Dan Santat ( )