Ask Bookie
Flotsam : A Caldecott Award Winner
Overview
In this wordless masterpiece from a two-time Caldecott medalist, a bright, science-minded boy goes to the beach equipped to collect and examine flotsam--anything floating that has been washed ashore. Full color.
Customers Also Bought
- 1
Details
- ISBN-13: 9780618194575
- ISBN-10: 0618194576
- Publisher: Clarion Books
- Publish Date: September 2006
- Dimensions: 9.1 x 11.5 x 0.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.06 pounds
- Page Count: 40
- Reading Level: Ages 4-7
Related Categories
You May Also Like...
- 1
The mystery of what lies beneath
Two-time Caldecott Medalist David Wiesner turns from the flying frogs in Tuesday and the cloud factory in Sector 7 to the mysteries of the sea in yet another brilliant, wordless picture book, Flotsam. Like many of the author's creations, this story begins with an inquisitive child, a boy observing crabs with his magnifying glass along the ocean shore. Without warning, a wave deposits a barnacle-encrusted Brownie-style camera, labeled the "Melville Underwater Camera," before the protagonist.
After waiting a seemingly endless hour for the film to be developed, the boy views a set of fantastical underwater photographs: wind-up fish with gears, an octopus family reading to its young by the light of bioluminescent fish, a colony of tiny people residing atop the shells of sea turtles, and stretching starfish-islands. But wait! There's also a photograph of a girl holding a photograph of a boy. And within that photograph is another boy holding a photograph of a girl. Puzzled, the boy first uses his magnifying glass, and then a microscope, to observe each child's photograph, ending with a sepia-toned, turn-of-the-20th-century image of a boy his own age. An open-ended conclusion leaves room for any child's sense of wonder to carry on.
Wiesner proves why he is an award-winning storyteller and illustrator with vivid watercolors that range from vignettes to spectacular full- and double-page panoramic views. Wonderful displays of imagination are evident throughout, as are small touches of humor, such as a photo of overly eager visiting aliens and their unruly children. Older and more astute readers will find many surprises, including a hint to the boy's discovery in the book's cover art, a reference to Wiesner's The Three Pigs on the title page, and a clever imitation of a classic Japanese print, Katsushika Hokusai's "The Great Wave at Kanagawa."
Most importantly, Wiesner continues to show children that things aren't always what they seem. Would the Caldecott committee consider a three-peat?
Angela Leeper is an educational consultant and writer in Wake Forest, North Carolina.
The mystery of what lies beneath
Two-time Caldecott Medalist David Wiesner turns from the flying frogs in Tuesday and the cloud factory in Sector 7 to the mysteries of the sea in yet another brilliant, wordless picture book, Flotsam. Like many of the author's creations, this story begins with an inquisitive child, a boy observing crabs with his magnifying glass along the ocean shore. Without warning, a wave deposits a barnacle-encrusted Brownie-style camera, labeled the "Melville Underwater Camera," before the protagonist.
After waiting a seemingly endless hour for the film to be developed, the boy views a set of fantastical underwater photographs: wind-up fish with gears, an octopus family reading to its young by the light of bioluminescent fish, a colony of tiny people residing atop the shells of sea turtles, and stretching starfish-islands. But wait! There's also a photograph of a girl holding a photograph of a boy. And within that photograph is another boy holding a photograph of a girl. Puzzled, the boy first uses his magnifying glass, and then a microscope, to observe each child's photograph, ending with a sepia-toned, turn-of-the-20th-century image of a boy his own age. An open-ended conclusion leaves room for any child's sense of wonder to carry on.
Wiesner proves why he is an award-winning storyteller and illustrator with vivid watercolors that range from vignettes to spectacular full- and double-page panoramic views. Wonderful displays of imagination are evident throughout, as are small touches of humor, such as a photo of overly eager visiting aliens and their unruly children. Older and more astute readers will find many surprises, including a hint to the boy's discovery in the book's cover art, a reference to Wiesner's The Three Pigs on the title page, and a clever imitation of a classic Japanese print, Katsushika Hokusai's "The Great Wave at Kanagawa."
Most importantly, Wiesner continues to show children that things aren't always what they seem. Would the Caldecott committee consider a three-peat?
Angela Leeper is an educational consultant and writer in Wake Forest, North Carolina.