Title: Toy Boat
Author: Randall de Seve
Illustrator: Loren Long
Age Group: 2-5
Synopsis: A toy boat and a boy are best friends but one day when they go sailing the boat slips free of his leash and is lost on a lake. He finds the self confidence and inner strength to return and be with his best friend while retaining his independence.
** I wrote this post this morning and then ran out to pick up Bug from Kindergarten. By the time we got home we were both cranky and frustrated. I had to go back and reread this post during his nap time and then have a long chat with my mom. Thank goodness for parents. I’m finally ready to face this afternoon**
The Lowdown:
I’m obviously on a Randall de Seve kick right now. I can’t help it. I love his writing style and the charm that seems to overflow from his stories. That each one seems to have an underlying message of inner strength and staying true to yourself helps. Toy Boat was no exception. I loved how the characters both grew through the story and in becoming stronger themselves, grew closer to each other. That’s a hard lesson to learn and as a friend it can be difficult to support your friends when it feels that they are distancing themselves from you. But ultimately a true friendship can weather any storm. Loren Long does a fabulous job of portraying the emotions felt by these two friends and the subsequent characters they come in contact with. This added piece allows the reader to fully understand the physical and emotional journey that these friends face.
The title character, a toy boat, is not a toy that was bought at a store but instead lovingly crafted by the boy who loves him. He uses a tin can as the hull, an L-shaped stick as the mast and boom, a pencil to help secure the jib sail and a cork centered in the hull providing the necessary connections. It’s a project full of ingenuity and love. The boy and boat do everything together and everyday go to the lake front to go sailing. The boy lets the boat out on a string but always holds tightly. But one day when the water is choppier than normal, the string slips and the boat find himself swept out among the other boats on the lake. Full-sized sailboats, motor boats, and ferries push the little toy boat aside and make him feel small and useless. He spends the night on the lake lonely and dejected. However, as the new day dawns, a kind fishing boat circles around the toy boat and gives him the encouragement he needs to catch the wind and sail on his own. As he finally makes it back to shore, the boy is waiting for him and so proud that the little boat could return on by himself. They still do everything together but when they sail at the lake, the boy lets go of the string and allows the little boat to strike out on his own, knowing that he’ll always return.
Loren Long brings this all to life with a dazzling array of characters. The boy and boat are perfectly matched and so carefully drawn that it is easy to slip into their mindset. Surprisingly, the toy boat is the only boat in the book that is not given any personified attributes (cleverly drawn eyes or a mouth). They aren’t needed. Long uses the boat’s other details to convey its feelings. A drooping sail and hull filling with water are perfectly adequate to show sadness while an uplifted pencil and full sail show how proud and happy the toy boat is. The other subtle tool Long uses is the sky. Throughout the entire book the sky varies from a bright beautiful blue to an ominous gray, a desolate navy complete with crying moon to an uplifting light blue complimented with the sun’s rays. The illustrations are truly heart warming and beautifully crafted creating a unfailing compliment to such a sweet story.
As a parent, it can be difficult to watch a child struggle to find independence and discover their inner strength. It is by allowing them to fail and learn from mistakes that we can really help them grow. I find sometimes I need to sit on my hands in an effort to let Bug figure out how to work things himself. But by sitting close by and providing words of encouragement as he works and those of praise when he succeeds, I am almost always rewarded with a smile of pride. Sometimes there are tears and bouts of frustration but the ending success is just that much sweeter after such trials are overcome. Because life isn’t always full of smooth sailing winds and we all have our own storms that we need to find our way through. But whether as a parent or a friend, being there on the shore to provide the support that our loved ones need and deserve, is not only a role we fulfill but a privilege.
Story Tips:
- This is an excellent book to practice inferences. Discuss the emotions that the toy boat is feeling with your little reader and let them try and make the deductions themselves. You can support them by helping with tone and observations about the page.
- Go sail a boat afterwords!
I need more!
Check out my other Randall de Seve reviews with Mathilda and the Orange Balloon and The Duchess of Whimsy.
Loren Long is the author/illustrator of the popular series: Otis. His books also include Nightsong, Drummer Boy, and Little Tree. He’s illustrated books for illustrious authors such as Margaret Wise Brown, Matt de la Pena, Walt Whitman, and Barack Obama. Check out his amazing array of beautifully crafted books here: http://www.lorenlong.com/
