(Book Cover: Wiesner, David. 2006. New York: Clarion Books. Picture Source: Official Website of Houghton Mifflin Books. 2008. http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/authors/wiesner/books/books_flotsam.shtml , accessed September 8, 2008).
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Wiesner, David. 2006. Flotsam. New York: Clarion Books. ISBN: 13: 978-0-618-19457-5. ISBN: 10: 0-618-19457-6.
2. PLOT SUMMARY: This is a story about a boy who is out for a day at the beach with his parents. His plan for the day is to closely examine, with the help of magnifying glass and microscope, the items that wash upon the beach (a.k.a. Flotsam). An old underwater camera washes ashore and through extremely careful examination and analysis of its contents, the boy discovers the history of the camera: Where it’s been, what it’s seen and who has been holding the same camera throughout the years. He realizes, at the end of the day, that he is part of the camera’s history and that he must follow the steps taken by others to record his own part in the history and to pass it along to the next child.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS: Through pictures alone, this award winning author and illustrator cleverly weaves a complex tale of discovery and understanding. The characters in this book are not all humans and animals. The camera and the photos it contains on film are really the main characters of this book. A magnifying glass and microscope are also primary characters in this book for without them, the story cannot be told. The story can only be fully developed by the boy’s examination of the photos. In addition to photos of undersea life, the boy discovers a photo of a girl holding a photo of boy, holding a photo of a boy, holding a photo of a boy, and so on. To see these photos of all the children within each photo, the boy uses the microscope and increases the power on the microscope to see more and more detail. The illustrations show the magnitude of the microscope by the use of powers: 10x, 25x, 40x, 55x, 70x. This is one detail that children might miss and would likely need to be explained.
The composition of this book is well thought out. This thought to composition starts with the cover of the book, which is a drawing of a red fish with a close up on its eye. The cover also has an alternative interpretation. One can easily see the cover as being the lens of a camera. This attention to detail continues inside the book. On some pages, the illustrations are enclosed by comic strip-like boxes placed around each illustration. These boxes help to move the reader’s eye along the page to view the drawings in an orderly fashion. Without these boxes, the story could not be told without additional pages being needed. These boxed drawings contain the background information needed to understand the full meaning of the story. The boxed drawings also cause the reader to realize that drawings of one or two pages are significant. The reader then spends a bit more time examining the link between the smaller illustrations and the larger illustrations. If such detail had not been paid to the composition of the book, the impact of the story would be lost.
The book contains diversity among characters but only to the extent that the minor characters have various ethnic backgrounds. The main human character is a blond, blue eyed Caucasian boy who is at a beach most probably situated along the eastern shores of the United States. All of the characters at the beach are also Caucasians. The diversity comes from the characters shown in the pictures developed from the camera. The children shown in these pictures are so diverse that it is hard to know where they are from. They could be from Japan, Norway, Africa, Jamaica, England, France, Brazil and the list could go on. These illustrations are intended to show the travels of the camera around the world but they also show the diversity of people around the world.
The illustrations of people are used to show the passage of time by the way the children are dressed. In the final illustration of children found in the pictures developed from the camera, a boy, standing on the beach with waves lapping at his feet, is dressed in knickers, socks and shoes, a vest and a jacket. The women surrounding him on the beach are dressed in long flowing dresses with long sleeved blouses. It appears this photo might have been taken sometime in the early 1900s. The passage of time is also depicted by the use of color. The book is entirely in color except for four black and white pictures of children found within the camera. The illustrator indicates that these pictures are some of the oldest in the camera by the black and white color but also by the indication that these pictures are seen through higher and higher magnification.
Interspersed among the main story of the humans is the story of the underwater life. These ocean scenes show familiar sea creatures doing very unfamiliar, human-like things. These illustrations are cleverly created to keep the child’s attention and to cause an examination of each page to see what human-like activities are involved. There is an illustration of an octopus family sitting in a living room with the father octopus reading to the younger generation while their pet fish swim in the fish bowl. Another depicts a puffer fish floating above the sea like a hot air balloon with fish, in a basket attached to it, taking a ride. This is only a sampling of the dozen or so pictures representing the underwater world and the camera’s existence when out of human hands.
In the end, the boy realizes the long history of the camera and devises a way in which he can become a part of it by taking a picture of himself holding the photo of the photo of the last child who found the camera. He tosses the camera back into the ocean, it goes on a journey through the oceans thanks to the ocean creatures and eventually washes ashore to be found by another child.
4. BOOK REVIEW EXCERPT(S):
(Source: Book Review Digest Plus, WilsonWeb database, accessed via TWU Library Online)
THE HORN BOOK, 82, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 2006): “The meticulous and rich detail of Wiesner's watercolors makes the fantasy involving and convincing; children who enjoyed scoping out Banyai's Zoom books and Lehman's The Red Book will keep a keen eye on this book about a picture of a picture of a picture of a....”
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, 111, no. 46 (November 12, 2006): "Wiesner's detailed watercolors make the absurd wonderfully believable, his graphic storytelling sense is sure and swift; …”
BULLETIN OF THE CENTER FOR CHILDREN’S BOOKS, 60, no. 1 (Sept. 2006) 44-5: “There are a multitude of appeals in the story--the fanciful undersea world, the kids-only secret, the web of connections across time and distance--and Wiesner's cinematic visual narrative fills the story out cunningly…”
5. CONNECTIONS IN A SCHOOL LIBRARY SETTING:
-- Use for critical analysis of photos. Good for “what do you see” discussions
-- Use in middle school for a science class studying tide currents. Ask children to try to determine where each child in each photo might be from based on where tide currents would take the camera.
-- Use for writing exercise. Let children write captions for each page.
-- Use as example for children to make there own story using only pictures.
Other related books:
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Wiesner, David. 2006. Flotsam. New York: Clarion Books. ISBN: 13: 978-0-618-19457-5. ISBN: 10: 0-618-19457-6.
2. PLOT SUMMARY: This is a story about a boy who is out for a day at the beach with his parents. His plan for the day is to closely examine, with the help of magnifying glass and microscope, the items that wash upon the beach (a.k.a. Flotsam). An old underwater camera washes ashore and through extremely careful examination and analysis of its contents, the boy discovers the history of the camera: Where it’s been, what it’s seen and who has been holding the same camera throughout the years. He realizes, at the end of the day, that he is part of the camera’s history and that he must follow the steps taken by others to record his own part in the history and to pass it along to the next child.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS: Through pictures alone, this award winning author and illustrator cleverly weaves a complex tale of discovery and understanding. The characters in this book are not all humans and animals. The camera and the photos it contains on film are really the main characters of this book. A magnifying glass and microscope are also primary characters in this book for without them, the story cannot be told. The story can only be fully developed by the boy’s examination of the photos. In addition to photos of undersea life, the boy discovers a photo of a girl holding a photo of boy, holding a photo of a boy, holding a photo of a boy, and so on. To see these photos of all the children within each photo, the boy uses the microscope and increases the power on the microscope to see more and more detail. The illustrations show the magnitude of the microscope by the use of powers: 10x, 25x, 40x, 55x, 70x. This is one detail that children might miss and would likely need to be explained.
The composition of this book is well thought out. This thought to composition starts with the cover of the book, which is a drawing of a red fish with a close up on its eye. The cover also has an alternative interpretation. One can easily see the cover as being the lens of a camera. This attention to detail continues inside the book. On some pages, the illustrations are enclosed by comic strip-like boxes placed around each illustration. These boxes help to move the reader’s eye along the page to view the drawings in an orderly fashion. Without these boxes, the story could not be told without additional pages being needed. These boxed drawings contain the background information needed to understand the full meaning of the story. The boxed drawings also cause the reader to realize that drawings of one or two pages are significant. The reader then spends a bit more time examining the link between the smaller illustrations and the larger illustrations. If such detail had not been paid to the composition of the book, the impact of the story would be lost.
The book contains diversity among characters but only to the extent that the minor characters have various ethnic backgrounds. The main human character is a blond, blue eyed Caucasian boy who is at a beach most probably situated along the eastern shores of the United States. All of the characters at the beach are also Caucasians. The diversity comes from the characters shown in the pictures developed from the camera. The children shown in these pictures are so diverse that it is hard to know where they are from. They could be from Japan, Norway, Africa, Jamaica, England, France, Brazil and the list could go on. These illustrations are intended to show the travels of the camera around the world but they also show the diversity of people around the world.
The illustrations of people are used to show the passage of time by the way the children are dressed. In the final illustration of children found in the pictures developed from the camera, a boy, standing on the beach with waves lapping at his feet, is dressed in knickers, socks and shoes, a vest and a jacket. The women surrounding him on the beach are dressed in long flowing dresses with long sleeved blouses. It appears this photo might have been taken sometime in the early 1900s. The passage of time is also depicted by the use of color. The book is entirely in color except for four black and white pictures of children found within the camera. The illustrator indicates that these pictures are some of the oldest in the camera by the black and white color but also by the indication that these pictures are seen through higher and higher magnification.
Interspersed among the main story of the humans is the story of the underwater life. These ocean scenes show familiar sea creatures doing very unfamiliar, human-like things. These illustrations are cleverly created to keep the child’s attention and to cause an examination of each page to see what human-like activities are involved. There is an illustration of an octopus family sitting in a living room with the father octopus reading to the younger generation while their pet fish swim in the fish bowl. Another depicts a puffer fish floating above the sea like a hot air balloon with fish, in a basket attached to it, taking a ride. This is only a sampling of the dozen or so pictures representing the underwater world and the camera’s existence when out of human hands.
In the end, the boy realizes the long history of the camera and devises a way in which he can become a part of it by taking a picture of himself holding the photo of the photo of the last child who found the camera. He tosses the camera back into the ocean, it goes on a journey through the oceans thanks to the ocean creatures and eventually washes ashore to be found by another child.
4. BOOK REVIEW EXCERPT(S):
(Source: Book Review Digest Plus, WilsonWeb database, accessed via TWU Library Online)
THE HORN BOOK, 82, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 2006): “The meticulous and rich detail of Wiesner's watercolors makes the fantasy involving and convincing; children who enjoyed scoping out Banyai's Zoom books and Lehman's The Red Book will keep a keen eye on this book about a picture of a picture of a picture of a....”
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, 111, no. 46 (November 12, 2006): "Wiesner's detailed watercolors make the absurd wonderfully believable, his graphic storytelling sense is sure and swift; …”
BULLETIN OF THE CENTER FOR CHILDREN’S BOOKS, 60, no. 1 (Sept. 2006) 44-5: “There are a multitude of appeals in the story--the fanciful undersea world, the kids-only secret, the web of connections across time and distance--and Wiesner's cinematic visual narrative fills the story out cunningly…”
5. CONNECTIONS IN A SCHOOL LIBRARY SETTING:
-- Use for critical analysis of photos. Good for “what do you see” discussions
-- Use in middle school for a science class studying tide currents. Ask children to try to determine where each child in each photo might be from based on where tide currents would take the camera.
-- Use for writing exercise. Let children write captions for each page.
-- Use as example for children to make there own story using only pictures.
Other related books:
Burns, Loree Griffin. 2007. Tracking trash: flotsam, jetsam, and the science of ocean motion. Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin.
Moss, Jeff. 1989. A lot of kids. In The butterfly jar, 95. New York: Bantam Books.
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