#997 of 1001 · April 24, 2023

Now is your chance, Gentle Readers of my Final Ten Books, to be whisked away on a strange odyssey over dark and mysterious seas as you flip through the pages of @petervandenende8’s The Wanderer. A traveler aboard a ship folds a sturdy boat out of paper and sets off on a voyage across the wide oceans. The little vessel navigates from mangrove forests and coral reefs to polar ice shelves and aurora borealis, encountering whales, jellyfish, sea serpents, tidal waves, lightning storms, and all manner of wild sights. Van den Ende’s stark monochrome pen-and-ink drawings are shot through with a boundless imagination. Originally published under the Dutch title “Zwerveling”, the wordless narrative follows the paper boat all the way to a far-off city, where the sailor disembarks, climbs a flight of steps, and encounters…who? We never find out, for here the dreamlike journey comes to a sudden and enigmatic conclusion. #wanderer #wander #wandering #boat #sail #sea #ocean #voyage #journey #quest #saga #danger #adventure #wonder #book #books #childrensbooks #picturebook #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks