Flotsam
By David Wiesner
2007 Caldecott Medal Book
When I first began reading this book I immediately thought this would be a book for younger students because it was lacking text. Boy, was I wrong. This story which is interpreted entirely by illustrations leaves so much to the imagination. I will use this in my own classroom to encourage "outside" of the box thinking and analyzing. This story is packed full of detail and meaning without saying one word. I do not think kindergarten or preschool students would be able to comprehend the meaning or lessons that this book is trying to convey. It requires more complex thinking skills. Each page is full with so much detail. The reader could study each page and its meaning for hours.
The story begins by showing a boy (the main character) studying a small sea creature with a magnifying glass on the beach with his family. The boy then spends time looking at other creatures around the beach. As he is doing this he finds a box that is washed up on shore. He picks up the box and discovers it is an old underwater camera. He then asks others if they know how to use it. He pulls the box apart and finds the film hidden inside. He takes the film to be developed and discovers the hidden pictures. The pictures (which are so hard to describe in words) include images of strange underwater life. One is of a mechanical fish swimming with real fish and another is of octopuses reading a book together on a couch. These pictures he finds are very imaginative but all include sea life in the ocean. The next picture is of a girl holding a photo and the photo is of a boy holding another photo which is of another boy holding a photo and so on...He uses his magnifying glass to look further into the photograph. Then he uses his telescope to look even further into the photo and it reveals children from many many years ago. You can tell this by the clothes they are wearing and because they are now black and white pictures. Then, the boy sets the camera up and takes a picture of himself holding up the photo of the girl which is holding all of the other past photos. Lastly, he throws the camera back into the ocean and the sea creatures carry it away to an imaginary place in the ocean. Then you see the camera being flown by a bird to a very cold and antarctic place in the world and in the next illustration it is then in a warm and tropical place and is washed up onto the shore where a little girl finds it on the last page.
This story is very difficult to explain in words. You must "read" it yourself to understand the true interpretation!
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