Return by Aaron Becker
Published 2016 · 40 pages · 11,000 words · about 1 hour at an average pace · Children's Literature, Graphic Novel, Fantasy
How hard is Return to read?
Return scores 19 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it relatively accessible. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 30 out of 100
- The book has no words, so there is no vocabulary to decode. Even Asterix the Gaul relies on text; Return relies purely on pictures a child can read.
- Sentence structure: 30 out of 100
- With no sentences there is no syntax to parse. Readers follow images in sequence, which is simpler than the diary syntax of Anne Frank.
- Abstraction: 18 out of 100
- The story is concrete: a girl, a red marker, drawn doors and fantastical creatures. The only abstract layer is the emotional subtext about wanting attention from her parents, which sits at a level close to Asterix the Gaul.
- Information density: 20 out of 100
- Each page carries detailed, imaginative illustrations, including a Trojan-horse-like boat, a griffin and hieroglyphics, so readers have much to scan. The volume is small and the pace is easy, well below Beach Read in demand for sustained attention.
- Narrative indirection: 30 out of 100
- With no text, readers infer everything from images, including the girl's feelings of neglect and the parent's growing awareness. The plot stays clear and visual, like Asterix the Gaul's clear action, though the emotional meaning needs some inference.
- Symbolic density: 35 out of 100
- The red marker that makes doors stands for imagination and a way out, and the parent's entry into the adventure carries emotional weight. These motifs are clear and few, placing it above Beach Read but well below The Great Gatsby.
- Ironic distance: 80 out of 100
- The wordless story speaks in an earnest, wondering tone with no ironic gap between what is shown and what is meant. It is as sincere as Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.
- Resolution withholding: 20 out of 100
- As the closing book of a trilogy, Return gives readers a satisfying wrap-up of the girl's story and her bond with her parent. Some meaning stays open because there are no words, but the arc resolves much like a genre-expected ending in Beach Read.
- Structural complexity: 18 out of 100
- The book moves in a linear sequence of illustrated scenes through doors into other realms, and it builds on the earlier books Journey and Quest. The structure is simple, near the linear diary form of Anne Frank.
How Return is regarded
Return holds a literary regard score of 25 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.