This is a fun story that teaches kids about what it's like buzzing around the coast in a tugboat, stopping at mill towns and "Indian burial grounds." It's a world that no longer exists, in other words, and the more poignant for that, though the geographical specificity is still a cool thing, teaching the kids where Lasqueti and Salt Spring and False Creek are (the idea of tugboats working out of False Creek!) even if the rough and rugged hippies and fisherfolk they'd've found there are no more. Downsides: there's a lot of Disney influence and foolish mugging on the part of the (excessive number of) animal sidekicks, and more seriously, who the fuck writes a book for little kids that only has a picture on every second page?? ( )