Caldecott # 2

Flotsam

Wiesner, D. (2006). Flotsam (Caldecott Medal Book). New York: Clarion Books.

This wordless book depicts a wonderful story of a young beachcomber who is very interested in the sea life. The book starts out with the boy looking through a magnifying glass at a hermit crab. The reader sees the hermit crab up close with a huge eyeball behind it. Next, a landscape picture of the boy holding the hermit crab in one hand and a magnifying glass in his other hand is shown. Varying viewpoints are shown throughout the entire book which keeps the reader very interested. (My son put down his Wii remote to look at this book, so it HAS to be interesting!)

The boy discovers a Melville underwater camera that washed up on the shore of the beach. He quickly develops the film, which was still intact in the camera and buys more film to replace that which he took. The boy is astonished to find photos of a wind up fish with gears swimming next to it's live counterparts, an octopus reading aloud to his octopus children and fish, a blowfish hot air balloon, a shell city on a turtle's back, and aliens undersea. The last photo the boy fins is of a girl who appears to be Asian, holding a photo of a boy who is in an obviously cold climate, who is holding a photo of a boy holding a photo of a girl, holding a photo of another girl, and so on and so forth. The boy quickly pulls out his magnifying glass and then his microscope to get a better look. Through the microscope, the boy discovers that there are ten different children holding photos of one another. He adjusts the microscope to 10X, 25 X, 40 X, 55 X, and 70 X, allowing the reader to see the changes as well. At 70 X, a sepia photo of a boy from long ago, waving by a beach is seen. After analyzing the photos, the boy sets up a makeshift tripod, takes a photo of himself with the photo, and then tosses the camera back out to sea, where it takes another adventure through foreign lands being carried by various animals. Eventually, a girl on a beach is reaching for the camera and the reader is left to assume the process will start all over again.

The pictures in this book are so colorful and vibrant, it's hard not to take a closer look at all of the detailed pictures! The intricate detail and journey into the fantasy of the imagination reminds me of Chris VanAllsburg books. One major thing I learned in reviewing this book is that a book does not have to contain words in order to be effective, nor does the fact that it is wordless mean that it is designed for the very young in mind. This book could definitely be used as a writing prompt for children all the way through the middle school level.