Book Illustration

Featured Book | “Wal’s longest journey”

This is one of my most favorite books, and the reason why it is so precious to me is that it happens to by my daughter’s and my own creation. Together we sat to work writing the story, drawing pictures, and designing the page layout, which we then handed over to the book binders. 

It was an incredible feeling to finally hold two copies in our very own hands — one of which we gave “Opa” (Sami’s grandfather) as a present for his 90th birthday! The other copy still remains with us, and I’m excited to finally share the content with a larger audience. If you like what you read and see, please comment and share, as I’m wondering whether there might be publisher out there who would like to publish it?

But first let me tell you a little bit more about how it all began:

Sami (our daughter) and I were thinking about what present to give the children’s grandfather for his very special birthday, and we came up with the idea of writing a story and illustrating it. It might have seemed a bit daunting if we had known then that we would end up with a whole book, but we took it step by step, and thereby we witnessed the process effortlessly unfolding in front of us — word by word, sentence by sentence, page by page.

Within a few days we had written the story of a boy’s long journey in search of his father, his intimate relationship with all kind of animals along his travels, and in a joint effort we had drawn seven pictures to illustrate it. But let’s start at the beginning:

“Wal” and his precious goldfish bowl |Illustration by Sami and Andrea Price

Most stories begin with the words “once upon a time …”. We let our story begin exactly like that: Once upon a time there was a little boy.

He lived with his mother and he loved animals. He had a beautiful fishbowl with two goldfishes in it.”

The fishbowl had been a present given to him by his father just before he set off on a very long journey — traveling so far that nobody would be able to join him, not even his beloved son.

The fishes were orange-golden at the head and had bright red tails.

By now you’d probably want to know the boy’s name? His name was “Wal”, which is the German equivalent for whale.

From: Wal’s längste Reise | Sami and Andrea Price
The name of the boy was “Wal”, which translates as whale | Illustration by Sami and Andrea Price

His parents had chosen the name because he was born on a ship in the middle of the ocean somewhere in between Africa and Australia exactly at the very same moment an enormous blue whale appeared at the horizon.

From: Wal’s längste Reise | Sami und Andrea Price

Can you hear the voice of a ten-year old girl coming through these lines? This for me is the beauty of the whole process — it’s the very personal story of our own daughter becoming inseparably intertwined with the story we found ourselves in within the process of writing. Here it is important to mention that she is not our biological child. We fostered her on from the very beginning of her life, and later adopted her.

This is her story. I just happened to write it down:

When Wal turned fourteen, his mother gave him binoculars, a compass, a map, and a small sailing boat, and sent him off to find his father | Illustration by Sami and Andrea Price

Wal lived happily with his mother and his goldfishes in the fishbowl. But he often thought of his father. He missed him.

When he turned fourteen, his mother gave him binoculars, a compass, a map, and a small sailing boat, and she sent him off to find his father. He took his fishes along with him, keeping them in a small fish tank that had a handle to carry it like a handbag.

When he turned fourteen, his mother gave him binoculars, a compass, a map, and a small sailing boat, and she sent him off to find his father. He took his fishes along with him, keeping them in a small fish tank that had a handle to carry it like a handbag.

From: Wal’s längste Reise

Of course this was not going to be an easy task for Wal. We then witness him facing all kinds of difficulties and new challenges as he sails on — a boy in a small boat in the company of two goldfishes in the middle of an ocean.

Wal amid the waves set adrift in a ferocious storm | Illustration by Sami and Andrea Price

When he gets caught in a massive storm, he finds himself stranded on a small island. Surrounded by rare birds, enormous snakes and shy deer, he learns to understand the language of all animals. Again and again he hears them say that fish don’t belong in a fish tank.

In the end Wal learns to trust the voice of a very old owl | Illustration by Sami and Andrea Price

Of course, this makes him very sad. In the end he trusts the voice of an old owl, and he decides to set them free. But this is not so straightforward as you might think: Even though he is surrounded by water, the water is salty, and his goldfishes are clearly not suitable for that.

Wal has to come up with an idea for them to survive unscathed in freedom, and again, it’s his own wit that helps him solve even such existential problem. He had to be very patient and cautious as he was carefully preparing his friends for them to be released into nature and freedom. Until finally the day came …

Finally, on a sunny Sunday morning Wal releases his beloved friends into the open sea | Illustration by Sami und Andrea Price

For a very long while they swam next to him and his boat, when suddenly far in the distance at the horizon the silhouette of a whale appeared …

For a very long while they swam next to him and his boat, when suddenly far in the distance at the horizon the silhouette of a whale appeared …

From: Wal’s längste Reise | Sami und Andrea Price

And they lived happily ever after. This is how many stories end. Not so our story: Our story ends as it once began — with a whale appearing at the horizon. It is easily possible that the end is in fact only a beginning. The beginning of another new story that once has to be written. It is then another story — your very own.

And they lived happily ever after. This is how many stories end. Not so our story: Our story ends as it once began — with a whale appearing at the horizon. It is easily possible that the end is in fact only a beginning. The beginning of another new story that once has to be written. It is then another story — your very own.

From: Wal’s längste Reise | Sami und Andrea Price

Please tell it.

Our story ends as it began — with a whale appearing at the horizon | Illustration by Sami and Andrea Price

The book is not yet available as a printed version, but who knows, maybe soon? I’ll keep you informed!