Sometimes one must travel far to discover what is near

           In The Everlasting Man, G.K. Chesterton writes:

                There are two ways of getting home; and one of them is to stay there.  The other is to walk round the whole world till we come back to the same place.

This idea, expressed in a different form, is at the heart of The Treasure, a picture book written and illustrated by Uri Shulevitz.  It tells the story of a poor peasant, Isaac, who sets out on a lengthy and arduous journey to discover a treasure revealed to him in a dream, only to discover that the treasure was in fact in his very own home all along.

The story is written in the form of a fable, and (I believe) is based on an actual folktale.  The wording is simple and sparse, with no extraneous details to distract from the perfectly composed tale.  Despite being incredibly brief, the author manages to simultaneously take his time in the telling, letting us hear twice, in exactly the same way, how he traveled in each direction.  

Though the story is beautiful in itself, Shulevitz's paintings, all bathed in the warm golden light of sunset, add so much to the book, and earned it a Caldecott honor.  I assumed while reading that it is set in Russia, since it has the flavor and architecture of a Russian story, but the author is Polish, so perhaps is it meant to evoke Poland as well.  In addition the Chesterton quote mentioned above, I am also reminded in reading this the parable of the pearl of great price.  I think one can see Isaac as the archetype of the Christian pilgrim, leaving everything behind to seek out the treasure of the Kingdom on God.  I highly recommend it as a read-aloud to young children.

Ages: read-aloud for 3-6

Rating: A