Matt Ottley

A young boy fights the enormous waves, braves the unknown with hazards of loneliness, solitude, and hope. All of it taking place on a makeshift boat with a book, bottle, and blanket and a teacup where is life grows anew. Teacup is a story of survival, when one is led off away from home. It breathes the hardened troubles ahead for young immigrants, refugees who must escape and leave home and start anew. In pictures this book is lovely depiction of the shared stations in life that child may show more feel like going through. What is that book? What is in that bottle? For whatever you may dream or imagine it to be. In today's world, I have met many a child who is experiencing this uneasy and frightful time. May we all find the island we can share. show less

"Teacup" was stunning and thought provoking. The illustrations in this book are each like a piece of art, perfectly pairing with the minimal yet descriptive words. "Teacup" follows a boy from an unknown land, heading out in a small boat with just a book, a bottle, a blanket, and a teacup that held earth from his home land. On the water, he experienced soft days, rough days, light days, and dark days. He saw wales, dolphins, and birds all while looking for a sliver of land. He reminisced on show more the sounds of home and soon, a tree grew out of his teacup. He used the tree as a lookout and eventually hit land. He made a home with his tree and the book ended with a girl arriving to his land with her own tree in an eggcup. The book is very ambiguous but beautiful. It still tells the journey of a boy journeying all alone to a new place, and his thoughts and longing for the familiarities of home. show less

Strangely beautiful. Alice in wonderland-like.

There is a boy who has within him a tree that bears flowers of ecstasy and fruits of unbearable sadness - an analogy for mental illness.
The illustrations are gorgeous and there’s an accompanying CD with music & narration which you are also able to download from his website - I’m sound sensitive so I preferred to read without it but I think for most people, the song makes the book experience immersive and more profound.

A young boy hops in a boat to find a new home bringing along nothing but some food and a teacup full of earth from the land he is leaving. But it is what's hidden inside that teacup that really matters.