Tuesday Storytime: Boats

Last week of summer for most of us here in SC, so I'm finishing out the season with the last of a trio of "vacation" books, looking at boats on rivers and oceans.

Two of these are repeats, I've used and liked them before, but the middle book (Little Tug) is new to my library, and I tried it out for the first time today.  I liked it also - very short and cute.

Toy Boat
Randall de Seve, illustrated by Loren Long
ISBN: 9780399243745
Painterly full-spread illustrations of a handmade toy boat on a dangerous night alone on the lake.

This is a sweet book, but it does get a little intense - there's a separation, then a storm, and a night alone on the water before the happy reunion with the boy.  I love the cadence of the words here, and the repeated "Move along" from the various sources.


Little Tug
Stephen Savage
ISBN: 9781596436480
Blocky print in limited color palette and very few words show the tug helping boats, and then a sweet goodnight.

This is my first read of this one, and I was a little worried that the lack of text would be a bit of a problem, but the flow was really smooth and slow, and that allowed plenty of time to appreciate the artfully blocky pictures.  I especially liked that the sailboat is male, and the motorboat is female.


Sail Away, Little Boat
Janet Buell, illustrated by Jui Ishida
ISBN: 1575058219
Stylized people and beautiful water scenes follow a toy boat from a brook downstream to the ocean, in verse.

This one is one where I'm not entirely sold on the verse structure.  Some books really just sneak it in there, and other books practically celebrate their verse structure, and some are just so brilliantly versified that it's a joy to read them.  This one is just a bit meh, and that makes it hard to summon the necessary energy to read this (decently long book) in the necessary rhythm to keep the verses and rhymes somewhat pointed.  That may just be me being a bit tired today.  Otherwise, I love that the boat itself is pretty much an excuse to explore the sights and sounds and wildlife (so much wildlife) along a brook, river, bay, and ocean.  The water, especially the fishes in the water, are just mesmerizingly painted.


And that's the end of summer for us, so next week, we'll do "Back to School" even though most of my group are too little to be in classes yet.