Jessixa Bagley, author and illustrator of Laundry Day, Before I Leave, and Boats For Papa (winner of the 2016 SCBWI Golden Kite Award for best picture book text) and Aaron Bagley (illustrator of Rocking Fatherhood) have been drawing and writing together since they met in art school more than a decade ago. What started off as a courtship of doodling in sketchbooks and belching in lockers soon turned into a marriage of doodling in sketchbooks and belching with their son.
Their artistic partnership is a balanced collaboration of overlapping their individual styles and painting techniques―creating one cohesive language. Vincent Comes Home is their first picture book together. And much like Vincent, they have moved around a lot but their home has always been each other.
As I’ve said before, I love cats, and picture books about cats make me very, very happy. I’ve also loved Jessixa Bagley’s previous works. So, when a copy of Vincent Comes Home arrived in the post, I was thrilled!
Vincent is a ship cat – he has spent his whole life on a container ship, travelling around the world. He lives a wandering life of comfort and ease. But when he overhears the ship’s crew talking about home much they’re looking forward to going home, Vincent’s curiosity is piqued. What is this “home” business everyone’s so excited about?
So Vincent decides to follow the ship’s crew and see “home” for himself. But he’s disappointed to discover that home isn’t some exotic new place or exciting new city. Home is where the people who love you are. Where are the people who love Vincent? Does he have a home?
Don’t worry, friends – Vincent does indeed have a home, and it’s on the container ship with the ship’s captain, who’s been looking all over for him.
Vincent Comes Home is a sweet, loving, beautifully illustrated story about finding out where you belong, and discovering that home really is where the heart is, no matter where in the world you might end up.
Vincent Comes Home
Hardcover, 32 pages
February 13, 2018 : Roaring Brook Press
Source: Raincoast Books