Journal 7 -Cloudland

         Albert and his family went mountain climbing. When they were going down, Albert fell off a cliff! His parents looked everywhere but not found him. At this time, the cloud children saw him falling down and spoke out some magic words. So Albert became very light and was caught by the cloud children. After Albert slept over a night in the cloud, these cloud children had breakfast, played jumping games, and played cloud ball with Albert joyfully. While the clouds became darker and darker, they made lots of thunderous noises. They swam in the rain, painted in the rainbow, and had races in the wind. As Albert was left far behind, he nearly was crushed by an airplane. Luckily, he walked to the other cloud children through pain which the plane left. Although Albert seems to enjoy the time in the cloud, he missed his home. He told to the queen and queen promised him that she would make the cloud drift over his country. Before Albert’ leave, the cloud children planned a party for him. Next evening, the cloud arrived and the queen spoke out the magic words again. Albert returned home, but he still thought whether he could go back to the cloudland by the magic words.

Line: There no straight line in each characters. 

The illustrator used undulating line to compose every picture.

Artistic media: Composite Technique

John Burningham used photos as background, and pasted hand-drawn pictures.

        I had dreamed and imaged to stand on the top of the cloud when going mountain climbing in my childhood. As I grew up, I almost forgot this childlike imagination. Thanks to this picture book, it reminded me something important. In the end of the story, Albert tried hard to return to the cloudland. However, he could not remember the correct magic words so that the cloudland remains innocent and pure times somewhere in his heart.