Into the Bewilderness by Gus Gordon

"Maybe we're missing out on something here in the woods? What if there's something else out there? Beyond the trees. Beyond the horizon, where the sun goes down into the ground for the night and the moon is released from the big box in the sky."

"One cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore."

Don't you just love that word in the title - Bewiderness - your young reading companion might anticipate that the two characters on the cover are bewildered and that they are either IN or travelling TO the wilderness.

Blurb from author webpage: In the Bewilderness, life is good. Best friends Luis (the large furry one) and Pablo (the small furry one) spend their days wandering through nature, playing songs on the guitar, and eating Slow Joe McNally’s pinecone porridge with their neighbors. When dreamer Luis receives an unexpected invitation to attend a performance of The Weary Mermaid in the big, bustling city, he finds it hard to ignore the allure of the bright lights. Luckily, he doesn’t have to go it alone—and it’s a good thing, because it’s a long journey through the Bewilderness, and Luis has many questions. Will they meet laser-eyed gargoyles, zombie chickens, or tyrannical cow rulers? Will they get there on time? Why is quicksand so slow if it’s called quicksand? Thankfully, with his grumpy but loyal best friend by his side, they’ll soon find out. ... Or will they?

This is a story of two unlikely friends - a bear and a mole. It is a 'grass is greener' story and it is also a tale of true friendship. If you are sharing this book with a young group of students, you could perhaps also look at some versions of Town Mouse and Country Mouse. As is often the way with unlikely friends stories this pair have contrasting personalities. Pablo is slightly cynical and verbose while Luis is naïve about the world especially the world beyond their woods. In another way this story also has deeper themes about our need for cultural experiences, rich lives and perhaps even deeper - it could be about the meaning of life itself - but maybe I am getting too carried away. 

Gus Gordon has included such a rich vocabulary in this book - mostly spoken by Pablo. 

sophistication backwater; behemoth; wayward; disoriented; rabid; ravenous winged creatures; repressed society; wanderlust; preordained; elegant chaos; immeasurable; and manifestation of intellectual achievement. So, this graphic novel and the tone of the humour will suit readers aged 9 or 10+.

It is fun the way the pair of friends 'rib' each other with their ascribed nicknames of Furball and Turnip. I also enjoyed the wordless pages - a chance to slow down and just see their world.

"Well Furball, we're off to see what the Big City has to offer. Will it be a vast wealth of culture and energy or a bottomless pit of despair?' 'There could be pretty lights ...!' 'That hide a broken-down society crippled by expectations of grandeur."

The Kirkus review of Into the Bewilderness is so insightful. The reviewer likens Pablo and Luis to Laurel and Hardy and I learned a new word for their friend Ray who is perhaps a yeti or a bigfoot. Kirkus use the word cryptid. Cryptid: an animal (such as Sasquatch or the Loch Ness Monster) that has been claimed to exist but never proven to exist.

Appealing, colorful artwork complements the philosophical, character-driven plot, including stunning two-page spreads that showcase the wonder of the woods and a sparkling night sky. With gentle humor, the author explores themes of curiosity, friendship, and the value of different perspectives. School Library Journal

This is a delightful and wacky graphic novel that will have adventurous spirits of all ages smiling as they follow this charming pair. The book doesn’t talk down to readers, containing impressive vocabulary and concepts that work on a number of levels. It’s a gorgeous little hardback and an absolute joy for ages 9+. Readings Melbourne

Gordon writes with wit, warmth, and compassion. He shares small but important insights into humanity, whilst also exploring more philosophical themes such as understanding our place in time and space, explaining the elegant chaos of the universe or unpacking the meaning of culture, all of which are handled deftly with humour. Reading Time

Here is the US cover with some tiny changes - I wonder why? The endorsement is from Sergio Ruzza - I do love his books (see them at the bottom of this post).

I read Into the Bewilderness in one huge gulp. It took me just over an hour to devour the 180 pages. I laughed and I gasped - there are two gasp-worthy scenes in this story. Gus Gordon is the author and illustrator of over 80 books, and he should be very proud of his first graphic novel which I know took many hours to create. You can see his work in progress on Instagram.

One of my favourite moments is when Pablo and Luis arrive in the Big City. They are hungry. Luis would like a tuna fish sandwich and Pablo would like some pecan pie. Turn the page and we see them standing outside a business named Tuna Fish Sandwich and Pecan Pie Restaurant - perfect!

You can see inside Into the Bewilderness here. 

Joy Lawn interviewed Gus Gordon and asked him about his book - here are a few quotes by Gus from her blog Paperbark Words:

This bear and mole deserved a larger story. So, I decided to sit down and write one chapter, and see where it led me. I did a lot of research, looking at other graphic novels, from here and abroad. I really hadn’t looked at many before, but I must admit that it felt familiar, in a sense, and once I began to flesh out the story, things kind of fell into place.

The wonderful thing about the graphic novel format is that it’s incredibly versatile. As long as the story is progressing, it doesn’t matter how you tell it visually. It embraces almost all the elements of storytelling. Much like a picture book, you can use the page space to breathe, and slow the pace down, not a single panel in sight. Perhaps a bird slowly making its way down over the forest below for pages and pages. Or, conversely, you can use multiple vignettes to speed the story up.

Home is always a powerful notion in stories, and it features heavily in Into the Bewilderness, as I mentioned earlier. A familiar theme that has been pointed out to me from readers, as a recurring feature of my stories over the years, is the theme of loneliness. That in the end we are alone in this world, and despite the undeniable importance of family and friends, it’s up to us to make the most of our short lives. 

When the pair of friends travel to the city to see a show I thought of this wonderful book:

And the expression of true friendship and an adventure in a big city (Gus says he was thinking of Detroit but I thought of New York) reminded me of this special book also by Gus Gordon:

Herman and Rosie

These are books by Sergio Ruzzier - he did the endorsement on the US cover of Into the Bewilderness.

Read more here.

The Dragon on the Train by Ben Brooks illustrated by George Ermos

"They'd taken his Spark. They'd closed in on him and stolen the music from inside his head. After that, the colour had gone from the world. What did that mean? Would he never truly hear music again? Would the rest of his life be spent hearing only the tick of the clock and the echo of his footsteps?"

Elliot's precious and loved grandmother Ellen has died. Elliot is deeply grieving. He is angry. He is lost. He is sure the world will never be the same. Elliott spent huge amounts of time with his grandmother because his mum was always working to make enough money for rent and food. Grandma Ellen was a cellist and over the first ten years of his life Elliott had been exposed to music of every genre. 

"She liked the lilting folk of The Dubliners, the doom laden guitars of Slipknot, the bubbling synths of Kraftwerk. She liked music written hundreds of years ago and she liked music written yesterday. She liked music that, to Elliott, barely even sounded like music."

But now Elliott cannot bear to hear any music. He decided to banish all music from his life. He stops playing his violin and fills his brain with distracting nonsense words whenever he hears music. Sixteen days after Grandma Ellen died, though, Elliott finds a mystery ticket under his pillow. This is a train ticket and late that night a small dragon appears in his room. 

"It had a sticky-out belly, dull scales and a tail that flicked back and forth behind its head. A glass lantern that cast long diamonds of yellow light across Elliot's carpet hung from the end of its tail. On its head the dragon wore a battered straw hat that sat a jaunty angle. The hat wobbled precariously above a pair of electric-blue eyes ... "

Kimorin has arrived as a guardian to help Elliot (or Olio) with the series of train journeys that he is about to embark on. Elliot has no idea that he is about to see Beethoven as a young boy, spend time on the Titanic on the night of the sinking (take a look at The Ship of Doom by MA Bennett), meet his ancestors and even travel to his own future. Along the way Elliott and Kimorin are pursued by monstrous creatures called Hush-Hush. The Hush-Hush hunt for and take the Spark from humans.

" ... that special thing inside you that lets you feel when you hear music. It's the thing that turns a song from a few random old sounds into an emotion."

This book was such a surprise. The story feels familiar, the story of a child processing their grief over the loss of a loved one, but there is so much gentle humour, a wonderful cheeky dragon who you will love and one very moving chapter that made me cry. I also learnt about an historical event - The Singing Revolution.

At 7:00 PM on 23 August 1989, approximately two million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined hands, forming a human chain from Tallinn through Riga to Vilnius, spanning 675 kilometres, or 420 miles. It was a peaceful protest against the illegal Soviet occupation and also one of the earliest and longest unbroken human chains in history. Estonian World

Huge thanks to Beachside Bookshop for the advance copy of The Dragon on the Train which will be published in June 2023. Readers who loved The Polar Express are sure to enjoy this deeper story about train journeys and our need to process grief. 

"His eyes filled with hot tears. For the first time since he'd been given the news about his grandma, he let himself explode. He let himself cry, loud and ugly. He let himself scream, face buried in his pillow. And he let his body thrash madly on his mattress like a fish out of water."

Companion books:

The Train to Impossible Places

The Boundless

The Silver Arrow

On the Blue Comet

The Dark Blue 100 Ride bus Ticket (this may be difficult to find but it is fabulous)

Eight Keys

I previously enjoyed The Impossible Boy by Ben Brooks:

The Impossible Boy