*Winner of Best Picture Book at the Diverse Book Award 2024*

A powerful and timely story, exploring the journey of two young refugee children in search of safety. Perfect for opening up conversations about conflict and war, encouraging empathy and understanding.

A young boy and his older sister have left home to play a game. To win, she tells him, they must travel across endless lands together and make it to the finish line.

Children they meet along the way imagine what might be waiting for them across the border: A spotted dog? Ice cream! Or maybe a new school. But the journey is difficult, and the monsters are more real than they imagined.

And when it no longer feels like a game, the two children must still find a way to forge ahead, and reach the other side.

Beautifully brought to life by author-illustrator Erika Meza, this is a symbolic and emotionally rich picture book about the spirit and strength it takes to leave your home behind.

Shortlisted for the Yoto Carnegie Medal, the Jhalek Prize, the Diverse Book Awards, the Inclusive Books for Children Award and the Little Rebels Award, and selected by Empathy Lab for The 2024 Read for Empathy Collection.

One of the best picture books I've read in recent memory. Astounding. -- Steve Antony, creator of Mr Panda
A thoughtful, profound, important book * Irish Independent *
The perfect starting point to open up conversations about love and war * Belfast Telegraph *
This book is beautiful. Beautifully illustrated. Beautifully told. -- Jarvis, creator of The Boy with Flowers in His Hair
I cannot recommend it enough - it is an incredible book -- Mark Bradley, creator of Bumble and Snug
The palette, the characters, the compositions, the message and author's note are simply impeccable -- Steven Lenton
This perceptive and exquisitely illustrated picture book will leave its readers questioning the complex reality of child migration
A gorgeously rendered, heartbreaking look at one family's. migration experience * Kirkus Reviews *
Powerful . . . a realistic but hopeful look at two children's emigration * Publishers Weekly *
A powerful and moving story.

Erika was born in Mexico and developed a taste for eclairs in Paris before moving to the UK to teach drawing. She won a scholarship to study in L'École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, where she learned to combine bold colour and mark-making with poetry. When Erika isn't drawing you'll find her plotting ways to teach her cat to play the piano.