Uncle Ernie is a daring adventurer and an enchanting story teller. He travels to far of places that he says are filled with extraordinary and sometimes rare creatures. His nephew wonders if these places Uncle Ernie describes are actually real? Are all the creatures he meets there real? Or are Uncle Ernie’s Stories only imagined?

Acclaimed Australian feature film designer David Woodland creates an epic tale about th power of storytelling.

Hardcover book - signed by the Author/ Illustrator - size 280mm x 220mm x 10mm 36 pages

hardcover

Reviews:

The Children’s Book Council of Australia - Reviewed by Cherie Bell

“This debut book by David Woodland gives children a great opportunity to let their imaginations run wild. The creativity and attention to detail provide a window into a world where they can expect the unexpected. Ernie, the titular character, is an experienced, adventuring uncle to Eli, a young tortoise who is very attentive to Ernie’s tales. Young readers will want to be paying attention right from the front endpapers.”

Anica Boulanger-Mashberg is a freelance editor, writer and reviewer.

“David Woodland’s debut picture book Ernie’s Journey is unmistakably influenced by his award-winning cinematic background. Its visual detail and narrative novelty are rich, and the absurd adventures of its eponymous character (a turtle, by the way) are as audacious and playful as any stories its audience of young children might produce. The imagery, a kind of softened nature-based steampunk fantasy, carries the reader through dreamlike scenes—filled with occyphants, bacon avocados and the ‘slippery, creepy, hairy, scary snider’—in which Ernie is the hero of his various exploits. At his uncle Ernie’s knee, Eli hangs on every word and inherits the spirit of adventure and inventiveness Ernie embodies; his enthusiasm is rewarded when Ernie gifts him the compass passed down through generations of the voyaging family. The collection of wildly odd encounters with imagined creatures in imagined landscapes is reminiscent of Rudyard Kipling mingled with Jim Henson, and while the book will engage the readers aged around four and up, it may be a little wordy for younger audiences. Ernie’s Journey jumps from adventure to adventure without quite adhering itself to any narrative arc (though of course, this exactly fulfils Eli’s appetite for exploration), however its distinctive and charismatic style, both earnest and playful, makes its worlds delightful to visit.”