Flotsam, A Caldecott Award Winning Book

Flotsam by David Wiesner

This beautifully illustrated book is a true picture book as only the illustrations tell the story, there is no text. The title page of the book made me smile as I saw the illustration of all the "beach junk" the boy had collected. This reminded me of my travels to the beach and all the items I love to collect. The boy in the story is quite the curious beach visitor as he brings a microscope, binoculars and a magnifying glass as well as the ever needed shovel and pail.

In the story the boy is surprised to find an underwater camera in which he develops the film inside to find a new world beneath the ocean's surface. The boy sees pictures of a world filled with ocean animals that sometimes curiously behave as people, living in homes and cities, riding in hot air balloons, even communicating with aliens! (Some pictures are very imaginative!) The most incredulous picture is that of a child holding a picture of a child holding a picture of a child (and so on). The boy knows he must take a picture of himself holding that picture. He sends the camera back into the ocean so the ocean animals can take more pictures. At the end we see another child retrieve the underwater camera as it washes up on a different beach and you know the story will continue.

I enjoyed the story and the illustrations were beautiful as well as creative. Weisner challenges the reader to question, "What sort of lives do the animals of the ocean live?"