Flotsam

Something that floats.
If it floats in the ocean,
it may wash up on the beach,...

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Wiesner, David. Flotsam. New York: Clarion Books,  2006

ISBN 9780618194575

David Wiesner  


PLOT SUMMARY:

An eloquent, wordless picture book about a boy spending a day at the beach. The young boy notices something that washed up in the surf and his journey begins. After having the film developed the boy sees pictures of an underwater fantasy world and of children from other countries and periods of time. The story is completed when the boy takes a picture of himself and returns the gift the ocean had given -- the camera with a new chapter of a wonderful wordless story.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS:

Flotsam has beautiful illustrations that connect and proceed smoothly from one page to the next. The detail in every illustration is amazying--from the windows on the sandcastle to the barnacles on the Melville underwater camera. Each page brings the reader to a new picturesque underwater paradise with cities on the back of seaturtles, mermaids riding octopi

REVIEW EXCERPT:

Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2006 (Vol. 74, No. 15): "From arguably the most inventive and cerebral visual storyteller in children's literature, comes a wordless invitaiton to drifin with the tide, with the story, with your eyes, with your imaginiation."
School Library Journal: "Filled with inventive details and delightful twists, each snapshot is a tale waiting to be told."

AWARDS:

Best Books of the Year, 2006 ; Publishers Weekly

Best Books of the Year, 2006; School Library Journal
Kirkus Book Review Star, August 1, 2009
Notable Children's Books, 2007 ; ALSC American Library Association

CONNECTIONS:

* Create a  picturless montage, using pictures from home or cut out of magazines.
* Create a Flotsame collage
* Use this book to discuss the oceans, other cultures, different eras in time.
* Read other books by David Wiesner