The Boy and the Airplane

I love “The Boy and the Airplane.” The main idea of this wordless picture book is to show the aging of a young boy and how as you get older, you are more generous to those who are younger. First of all, I loved the plot of this story. The book did a good job on having an organized, well-developed pace. The book starts off with a young boy receiving a gift, and from there, the author slowly shows each detail of the boy playing with a red airplane and eventually, getting the red airplane stuck on a roof. Though the book has no text, the specific details on each page made it known to me what was occurring. The illustrations of this book are wonderful as well. The illustrator uses soft brown-toned colors to help readers fall into place show more with the calmness of the story. On the opening panel of the book, there are only three sentences. “A little boy, A lost airplane, An idea takes root...” Just having these three sentences helps grasp what is happening throughout the book, and I enjoyed the simplicity of that. show less

The Boy and the Airplane by Mark Pett is yet again another wonderfully imaginative wordless picture book. The story begins with the depiction of a young boy enjoying the simple treasure of a toy airplane but one day he the airplane lands somewhere he cannot reach it and over time he tries many ways to get it until one day he has an idea to plant a tree. Many years later when the young boy has grown into a man he climbs the tree and retrieves the little toy plane and once again can enjoy the simple treasure he once did long ago.

Simple yet evocative illustrations. Unexpected plot turn. Surprisingly complex for a picture book!

This wordless picture book is a great representation of patience, maintaining a child-like innocence and playfulness. It can even teach readers the usefulness of innovative thinking and patience in sticking with solutions to problems even if they take a long time. The author utilizes the power of a smooth sequence of events to help the reader fully understand exactly how much time passes and exactly how patient the boy is when trying to get his toy plane back. The details of the child’s expressions or lack there of (when there is a smile on the boy’s face but then the next page there is no mouth at all) is key in helping the student understand the emotions the student is going through while waiting. The author’s idea of having the show more boy use all kinds of different objects to obtain the plane, including planting a tree to reach the plane, and then waiting for the tree to grow, shows students that solutions to problems can come in all kinds of forms. show less

The 'solution' is silly. It only works as a metaphor, imo. The ending is nice, if one has accepted the premise, the themes of loyalty and patience. I found it interesting that the little boy looks like a middle-aged man, and the old man looks more childlike & innocent; I wonder if it was intentional. Some spreads were charming, some just meh. I doubt I'll bother looking for others by the author.

This book was one of my favorite wordless picture books to look through. I like that it is straight to the point, but has a sweet and continuous storyline. Each page had an event on it and provided just enough information in order for any reader to understand. It was clear that the boy was playing with his plane, it got stuck on the roof, and it took him years and patuence to get it back. It was heartwarming to see the boy grow old, and eventually gift his plane to another child. Him doing that at the end leaves readers wondering how the next child will play with it, and will the same thing happen to them? This book can be used in early elementary grades to aid in teaching sequence of events. I would use this book in my future classroom.

This was a great wordless book about a boy whose airplane gets stuck and he can’t get it back down until he’s an old man, and by that time, he doesn’t need it and gifts it to another young person. It seemed very mature for such young audiences and raises the question of why he doesn’t get an adult to help him and instead builds a tree. The illustrations were beautiful and it would be good to ask children to guess and infer what will happen next. I think that’s where the magic of this story would lie, but I also feel it would make students mad when they get the ending.