Noah’s Ark (Picture Yearling Book)

Peter Spier. Dragonfly Books 1992, Paperback, 48 pages, $3.00

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Everyone should have at least one Noah’s Ark story, and Peter Spier’s version is one of the best available.  It is especially well suited to children, with its wordless format and careful attention to visual detail.  Sweeping illustrations fill up each page with well-developed vignettes, evoking the horror, danger and hope of the original story.

The story is simple, yet this book is complex enough for both pre-readers and readers.  Having discussed it with an adult, pre-readers will be able enjoy it on their own for an extended time, since the pictures convey at least as much information as the words.

Ralph Masiello’s Ocean Drawing Book (Ralph Masiello’s Drawing Books)

Ralph Masiello. Charlesbridge Publishing 2006, Paperback, 32 pages, $4.43

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

This is another very nice introduction to realistic drawing, a little more advanced than Jennifer Lipsey’s books.  Masiello is a children’s book illustrator, and has made his skill accessible by producing a very easy to use, detailed instructional guide to drawing many kinds of fish and underwater creatures.  His step-by-step instructions break down the lines of each drawing into manageable steps, and the finished product is something any child (and most adults) can be proud of.  this is an excellent supplement to cultivate a child’s interest in drawing skill as well as learning about underwater creatures.

Flotsam (Caldecott Medal Book)

David Wiesner. Clarion Books 2006, Hardcover, 40 pages, $9.33

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

An entrancing wordless fantasy about a boy who finds a magical camera at the beach.  The pictures on its film are full of fantastical images — a school of fish with a robotic member, octopuses lounging on sofas and chairs, aliens touring the bottom of the sea with cameras; giant starfish with islands on their backs.  The final photo is of the last child who discovered it, holding a photo of the child before her, who is holding a photo of the last child, and so on.  Seeing this, he takes his own photo and throws the camera back into the sea.

The stunning imagery of this story is playfully surreal, and some children may be uneasy with the way it plays with reality.  But for those who can enter into its fantasy world, the story is wonderfully enthralling, and any child who experiences it may find themselves looking for a camera in the waves the next time they visit the beach.

Shanna Gonzalez with Christopher, Reading at his 4th Birthday Party, June 2009

Call It Courage

Armstrong Sperry. Simon Pulse 1973, Mass Market Paperback, 128 pages, $0.58

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Mafatu, the ten-year-old son of a Polynesian chieftan, has always feared the sea because in his toddlerhood he and his mother were swept away by a storm in which his mother lost her life.  As he approaches the edge of manhood, his fear prevents him from winning a place in his community.  Realizing their indifference to him, he sets out to sea alone in his canoe, taking only his dog and a few tools.  That night he is caught in a storm, in which he loses his paddle and all his tools, and he washes up on an island where cannibals are known to live.  He builds a shelter and canoe and chooses to survive; while living there he kills an octopus, a boar, and a shark, and faces the human terror of ritualistic cannibals, barely escaping with his life.  At the end of his journey he returns to his village having proved himself a man.

The story is set in a mythical Polynesia, but is written in a European voice: at one point the author describes a canoe caught in a current “like a millrace,” a term which is decidedly foreign to this island culture.  The great weakness of this book is that the tribal societies which provide a backdrop for the story are caricatured:  The tribal fishermen represent noble savages, living so close to nature that they become “ill at ease, charged… with an almost animal awareness of impending storm” (3).  Conversely, the cannibal tribe represent a class of wordless, brutal primitives — dancing with oiled bodies, beating drums around fires and stone idols, wailing, and shouting with guttural voices.  Mafatu appeals throughout the story to Maui, “god of the Fishermen,” and repeatedly challenges his nemesis Moana, the Sea God.  Sperry’s Maui, however, hardly resembles the Polynesian trickster named Maui, and the Moana of the story is only a personification of the sea (In some of the languages “moana” does mean sea or ocean.)

No one having read this book should believe they have learned anything about the real Polynesia — it is no more a story about Polynesia than Little Red Riding Hood is about the European forest. Notwithstanding this, if a reader can accept that Call it Courage is a lesson not in history but in moral courage, they may benefit from the moral example this hero represents.  Although Mafatu is limited by his youth and inexperience, he faces great dangers and survives, facing down one fear after another.  By making critical choices under pressure, and by refusing to succumb to the elemental, animal, spiritual and human forces arrayed against him, he finally wins his victory.  This coming of age is an accomplishment any young boy can aspire to.

All About Sharks (All About…)

Jim Arnosky (Illustrator). Scholastic Press 2003, Hardcover, 32 pages, $4.00

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

An introduction to an animal that children are often fascinated with, illustrated in Arnosky’s wonderful style with lots of information about the characteristics, habits, and varieties of sharks.  From a creationist perspective, this one is unfortunately marred with an explicit evolutionary reference saying sharks have swum in the oceans for millions of years, and they haven’t changed much in all that time.  A judicious parent with a sharpie can easily excise this comment, however, and the rest of the book is quite interesting and straightforwardly informative.