Module 3: Flotsam

Book Summary: This book is one of David Wiesner’s wonderful “wordless” books. The story, told only in pictures, shows a boy at the beach who finds an old-fashioned box camera washed up with the tide. When he realizes there is film in it, he takes it to be processed. The pictures he gets back show fantastical underwater scenes with strange clockwork fish, cities of marine life, alien creatures and starfish islands. The last picture on the roll is a photo of a young girl, holding up a photo of another child holding a photo. As he looks at it first with a magnifying glass and then a microscope, he sees images all the way back to a boy in very old-fashioned dress waving at the camera. When he sees this, he re-loads film into the camera and takes a photo of himself holding up the last photo, then tosses the camera back into the water. The camera continues on another underwater journey, and ends washing up on another beach for another child.

APA Reference:Wiesner, D. (2006). Flotsam. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.

My Impressions:
This story was truly magical. The illustrations were beautiful, especially the cover. No words were necessary to tell the story; the illustrations did a fine job. The underwater scenes shown in the pictures are delightful and would appeal to anyone’s imagination. His multi-pane paintings do a very good job of describing the sequence of events, and he is very good at using the character’s expression and body language to tell the story. For example, the scenes that show the boy waiting for the film to be developed show very well how impatient he is, with the boy fidgeting and shown in a different pose in each pane. I really enjoyed the part where he was looking at the photograph of the child with the photo, and realized that there was photo within photo back to the very beginning. The camera and the photo connected all of these children from all different times and places, even though they likely never met each other. I was a little surprised to see his pictures all washing away with the tide in the end, but at the same time it was interesting to think that having no evidence would mean that this would stay a secret that only these children knew. Showing the camera’s journey after he tossed it back in, and seeing the next child pick it up, it makes the reader wonder and speculate about what that next child is going to see.

Professional Reviews:Publishers WeeklyTwo-time Caldecott winner Wiesner (Tuesday; The Three Pigs) crafts another wordless mystery, this one set on an ordinary beach and under an enchanted sea. A saucerlike fish's eye stares from the exact center of the dust jacket, and the fish's scarlet skin provides a knockout background color. First-timers might not notice what's reflected in its eye, but return visitors will: it's a boxy camera, drifting underwater with a school of slim green fish. In the opening panels, Wiesner pictures another close-up eye, this one belonging to a blond boy viewing a crab through a magnifying glass. Visual devices binoculars and a microscope in a plastic bag rest on a nearby beach towel, suggesting the boy's optical curiosity. After being tossed by a wave, the studious boy finds a barnacle-covered apparatus on the sand (evocatively labeled the "Melville Underwater Camera"). He removes its roll of film and, when he gets the results, readers see another close-up of his wide-open, astonished eye: the photos depict bizarre undersea scenes (nautilus shells with cutout windows, walking starfish-islands, octopi in their living room ? la Tuesday's frogs). A lesser fantasist would end the story here, but Wiesner provides a further surprise that connects the curious boy with others like him. Masterfully altering the pace with panel sequences and full-bleed spreads, he fills every inch of the pages with intricate, imaginative watercolor details. New details swim into focus with every rereading of this immensely satisfying excursion. Ages 5-8.

(2006, July 24). [Review of the book Flotsam by D. Wiesner]. Publishers Weekly 253(29), p. 56-57. Retrieved from http://subs.publishersweekly.com/

School Library JournalK-Gr 4-A wave deposits an old-fashioned contraption at the feet of an inquisitive young beachcomber. It's a "Melville underwater camera," and the excited boy quickly develops the film he finds inside. The photos are amazing: a windup fish, with intricate gears and screwed-on panels, appears in a school with its living counterparts; a fully inflated puffer, outfitted as a hot-air balloon, sails above the water; miniature green aliens kowtow to dour-faced sea horses; and more. The last print depicts a girl, holding a photo of a boy, and so on. As the images become smaller, the protagonist views them through his magnifying glass and then his microscope. The chain of children continues back through time, ending with a sepia image of a turn-of-the-20th-century boy waving from a beach. After photographing himself holding the print, the youngster tosses the camera back into the ocean, where it makes its way to its next recipient. This wordless book's vivid watercolor paintings have a crisp realism that anchors the elements of fantasy. Shifting perspectives, from close-ups to landscape views, and a layout incorporating broad spreads and boxed sequences, add drama and motion to the storytelling and echo the photographic theme. Filled with inventive details and delightful twists, each snapshot is a tale waiting to be told. Pair this visual adventure with Wiesner's other works, Chris Van Allsburg's titles, or Barbara Lehman's The Red Book (Houghton, 2004) for a mind-bending journey of imagination.-Joy Fleishhacker, School Library Journal (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. Fleishhacker, J.

(2006, September 01). [Review of the book Flotsam, by D. Wiesner]. School Library Journal 52(9), p. 186-187. Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/

Library Uses: I think that this book is a great one for inspiring the imagination. One thing that a librarian could do with this book is, after having the children read it or read it to them, have them come up with some ideas of what they think the next child might see in the pictures. The children could write down their ideas, draw them out, or even just talk about them. To me the value in this book, along with its visual beauty, is the possibility of inspiration. Children have wonderful imaginations, and using this book as a springboard, they could almost certainly come up with some amazing ideas.