Journal Entry 5

Flotsam

by David Wiesner



After learning about picture books in class, I came across Flotsam with its multiple awards displayed on the cover and decided to check it out. I was actually rather surprised to find it was a wordless book. I had never really studied or "read" a wordless book before so I was immediately interested in analyzing it. The book is about a little boy who spends his days on a beach collecting flotsam - "something that floats", meaning he searches for things that wash up on the beach. One day he finds an underwater camera and when he develops the film he sees exactly what goes on in a world humans don't get to experience. He also discovers pictures of all the children who have previously found the camera, and taking a photo of himself, he sends the camera back into the ocean. The last page shows a picture of another kid finding the camera washed up across the world on a different beach.

As I flipped through the pages, seeing the story unfold before me, I felt excited. It was a feeling I had never really gotten reading any other type of book before. I can not remember ever having to understand a story without decoding text, so it was a completely new and foreign adventure for me. I felt like I was a child again, studying the pictures and having to use my imagination to create the text(story) myself. I felt in control - like it was my story to tell using only the visual clues to help me. It made me imagine what it would be like if I didn't know how to read - like most young children do not. Pictures can be powerful, they can ignite excitement and nurture and expand imaginations. I think that is why children are naturally such great storytellers. Before they know how to read text, they know how to use the pictures to help them tell a story. As adults, we often forget what using our imagination feels like - most of our creativity vanishes. We read books, study the text, and often never even question it. Children have a wonderful ability to be creative and I think wordless picture books like Flotsam allows them to do just that.

I first of all connected to the book on a personal level because it brought back memories of myself as a child. I grew up in Bonavista where you could literally walk right off the province's edge and I would never change that for anything. I spent my summer days with my parents on the beach across from my house splashing in the freezing ocean and making a mess in the sand. My dad would take my little brother and I to find "beach glass", glass that is smoothed from the rough action of the water and sand. My brother and I would have contests to see who could find more pieces and who found the prettiest colors. I still hold those memories close because my dad passed away a few years later. So for that reason, I connected with the little boy in the book who loved searching for objects that washed up on the beach.

I also believe the book can be enjoyed by children of varying ages. I wouldn't necessarily put an age limit on it because I thoroughly enjoyed "reading" it myself! I can imagine young children sitting down studying the pictures and making up their own story to accompany the text, letting their imaginations run wild. The pictures are such that they follow a sequentially organized plot and the subject is fascinating. Any child who has grown up around water should also have enough background knowledge to understand the pictures.

With regards to the actual illustrations, I believe David Wiesner has done an incredible job. Flotsam has won both The Caldecott Medal and "Best Illustrated Children's Book Award" from the New York Times. The illustrations were executed in watercolor and emphasizes amazing detail and texture (the fish scales, eye lashes, hair, etc).

I particularly love how most illustrations have borders around them, giving a formal and sequential feeling to the pictures:



Another aspect I absolutely love about the photos is that some are shown from multiple perspectives. This creative technique used by Wiesner gives us an "all knowing" view and enables us to see the same event in different ways, giving us perspective. For example, the following illustration shows us the same scene from 4 different perspectives - very neat!



Lastly, I love the fantasy within the book. The deep seas of the world are a mystery to most of us, and this book allows us to see "photos" of a deep water world full of fantastical people and elements. We believe through this book that octopus live in homes with furniture, there are mermaids, and villages with little underwater aliens, etc. I love how imaginitive the underwater world is portrayed and I can picture young readers imagining it in these ways too. Example:

I just want to conclude that Flotsam is a great wordless picture book that I felt the need to write about. It is an amazing book to get readers thinking creatively and pulls you into a story that you can be a part of creating. My first wordless book experience was great!