David Wiesner

Fantastic art is a given with David Wiesner. So is the trippy ordinary-becomes-extraordinary thing. The only thing that holds me back from really loving Wiesner's books is that they can seem a little too serious, like they're art objects more than lovable stories. What I like about this particular David Wiesner book is the quirky sense of humor. Wiesner having fun! Yay!

Flotsam is a beautifully illustrated wordless-picture book. When I reached the end of the book, I have forgotten there were no words, because my imagination had the opportunity to fill in the blanks. The detail on every page showed true creativity, and is wonderful for any age. I am a college student who thoroughly enjoyed it, but it could also be extremely enjoyable to children who can not yet read. The best part about this book, I believe, would have to be that your mind has an opportunity show more to create a story to go along with the pictures given. This would be an excellent book to use in a classroom to see how children's imaginations run wild with commentary. I would imagine they will see things on the pages that we, as adults, may have missed all together! This book takes you under the sea, a place that is a great mystery to us all, and brings it to life. Through Wisener's use of imagination, he is able to take ordinary sea creatures, and make something magical and unexpected happen. One of my favorite pages is the one where the backs of Starfish are what hold up islands, I would have never thought of something like that! I also loved the history Wiesner incorporates through the pictures of all the children who came into possession of the camera. This book could also be used as a tool to teach about unity. Although the children in the photo's are from different times and places, they are all unified through that camera and the journey it takes them on. A magical book that I highly recommend! show less

It isn't hard to see why this wordless picture book won the Caldecott Medal. Wiesner's beautiful, intricate, and quirky illustrations are evocative and playful at the same time. The relatively simple story, which follows a young beach-combing boy as he discovers an antique camera in the surf and develops the fantastical pictures inside, is original and moving. The last few pages, where the boy sees all the other children who have discovered the camera and then sends it on to its next show more destination, was a classic trope told in a new and inventive way.

Whether a pufferfish hot-air balloon or a group of mermaids taking a squid-taxi along a sandy boulevard lined with streetlamps, Wiesner's imagination manages to combine ordinary objects with delightful sea-creatures to make a fanciful universe all his own. While some of the full-page illustrations tend more towards the abstract or the surreal, he always includes little touches to anchor them in the real world. In the page with the pufferfish, for example, the entire foreground is taken up with the splash of a breaking wave, frozen in time. Something about those still water droplets makes this whimsical picture seem so much more real than anything you're likely to find in Salvadore Dali's repertoire. Recommended for grades K-3. show less

Brilliant picture-book author/artist David Wiesner, whose Tuesday and The Three Pigs both won Caldecott Medals (in 1992 and 2002, respectively), struck gold a third time with this gorgeously illustrated, and entirely wordless tale! Set at the seaside, Flotsam follows the story of an inquisitive young boy who stumbles across an underwater camera washed up on the shore. Running to a local shop to have the film he finds in the camera developed, the boy uncovers a fantastic underwater world he show more had no idea existed: entire cities floating along on the backs of giant turtles, islands resting upon enormous starfish, aliens visiting the watery part of earth! Finally, with the last photograph, the boy discovers something about the journey of the camera itself, through time, and through the hands of many other beachcombers worldwide. Inspired, he sends the camera back out into the ocean, to continue its voyage of discovery and wonder...

I absolutely adored this book! The artwork, done in watercolor, is simply beautiful, with a luminous quality that perfectly captured the enchantment of a day at the shore. The underwater scenes appealed to my love of the fantastic, and my fascination with the idea of hidden worlds. With mechanized fish and storytelling squids, what's not to love?!? The final sequence of events, in which the boy examines the picture within a picture within a picture within a... (well, you get the idea) was a very clever resolution of the question of the camera's origin, and of the boy's decision as to how to dispose of it. I liked the idea of the camera itself being on a journey of discover, recording the wonders of the deep for each new discoverer. And, of course, it was an especially nice touch that it was a "Melville Underwater Camera," as this evoked all the seafaring genius of Moby-Dick for me, with its brilliant introductory "Etymology" section which - like the camera in this story - is a sounding of sorts.

All in all, Flotsam is a winner on every level: as storytelling, as art, and as tribute to one of America's most brilliant authors. This is one that surely deserved its shiny Caldecott! show less