Boat of dreams

Title:

Boat of dreams

Author:

Summary:

Inspired by Rogério Coelho's family vacation on a Brazilian coastal village in winter, the characters of the old man and the young boy popped into his imagination and compelled him to create a story that took him almost seven years to complete. An old man and a seagull live on a deserted island. A young boy and his cat are lonely in a city. Between them, in a stoppered bottle, floats a piece of paper on which the man draws a flying boat and the boy imagines himself aboard. Are they separated only by distance, or also by time? Are they the same person - the man's own memory of childhood? Are dreams of the future and memories of the past and a voyage of the imagination able to compose an ever-changing present? No distance is too far and no gulf of time is unbridgeable whenever your dreams carry you to wherever you wish to sail. This wordless, many-layered 80-page picture book invites all these interpretations and more. The intricately detailed illustrations reveal new wonders with each viewing. Neither children nor adults will ever tire of this wonderful testament to imagination, memory, and dreams.

General Note:

"First published in Brazil by Editora Positivo Ltda., in 2015"--Colophon.

Physical Description:

1 volume (unpaged) : color illustrations ; 25 cm

Genre:

Picture books.

Subject Term:

Boats and boating -- Juvenile fiction.

Dreams -- Juvenile fiction.

Memory -- Juvenile fiction.

Older men -- Juvenile fiction.

Boys -- Juvenile fiction.

Ocean bottles -- Juvenile fiction.

Stories without words

Publisher:

Tilbury House Publishers,

Publication Date:

2017

2015

ISBN:

9780884485285

Publication Information:

Thaston, Maine : Tilbury House Publishers, [2017]

Call Number:

P COELHO

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003237073	Picture Books	COELHO	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

How does a boy come to live alone in an apparently deserted city? Are they separated by distance or by time? Does the man dream the boy? Does the boy dream the man? Is a blank paper in a floating bottle an invitation to imagine our futures? Is the man's flying boat an encouragement to the boy to dream? Are the man and the boy the same person--the boy dwelling in the man's memory? Is a message in a bottle the earthbound dreams of the elderly? Is a flying boat the unconstrained dreams of the young? This wordless, many-layered 80-page picture book invites all these interpretations and more. The intricately detailed illustrations reveal new wonders with each viewing. Neither children nor adults will ever tire of this wonderful testament to imagination, memory, and dreams.

Author Notes

Rogério Coelho has illustrated more than 100 books in Brazil, where he lives, and he won Brazil's top literary prize, the Jabuti Award, in 2012. He illustrates for children's magazines internationally, including Storytime Magazine in England. He conceived Boat of Dreams while spending a few winter days with his children in a coastal Brazilian village, surrounded by a beautiful but gray landscape. The boy and the man appeared instantly in his imagination, but it took him almost seven years to complete the book. "The story became much bigger than my first concept, but I could not find ways to tell it otherwise," he says. "When walking toward the future I never forget to look back, and I always see a boy who loves to draw. And when I look ahead, I can't see another picture than this."

Reviews (2)

School Library Journal Review

Gr 1-4-Outside a seaside cottage sitting on stilts, an elderly gent and his avian companion spy a glass bottle floating in the ocean. When the bottle reaches the shore, the man discovers that it contains a blank sheet of paper. The bird encourages him to sketch a picture on the paper, and the man does, creating a fantastical flying ship, replete with ornate fixtures and billowing sails. Stunning stylized sepia artwork on full pages and in panels illustrates this wordless story and depicts a tiny home crammed with cabinets and cupboards and bins and shelves packed with books, pencils, lamps, radios, and drawings. Close-up interior views open to wide-angle outdoor scenes, heightening the tale's mystery. The man's picture eventually finds its way into the hands of a boy whose home in a distant city is reminiscent of the cottage by the sea: filled to the brim with pictures and papers, ship models, and drawing tools. The child adds his face and his cat's to the drawing and tapes it to his headboard before falling asleep. He dreams that he travels on the ship and meets and embraces the man before sailing home. At night, in bed, the man looks at the drawing the boy has returned. When morning breaks, readers are back with the child, who greets the dawn with arms outstretched. Has the man been reunited with the child? VERDICT Intriguing images and interpretations abound, offering readers lots to pore over and ponder. A lovely choice.-Daryl Grabarek, School Library Journal © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publisher's Weekly Review

Originally published in Brazil, Coelho's enigmatic wordless tale bridges picture book and graphic novel territory as it traces the surprising encounter between an elderly man in a ramshackle seaside cottage and a child in a distant city. After the wiry, mustachioed man discovers a note in a bottle, he's inspired to draw a fantastical flying machine, which resembles half of a sailing ship augmented with a nest of gears. The man sends his drawing back to sea, and the action shifts to the city, where a boy finds it in a letter in front of his home; how it got there from the bottle isn't revealed. After drawing himself (and his cat) into the picture, the boy sails the ship to meet the man in his dreams. Coelho (Books Do Not Have Wings) stages his story in dramatically lit, sharp-edged, and distinctly surreal panels and panoramas; his limited palette of blues and sepias conveys a strong sense of isolation, particularly in the boy's chilly, deserted city. It's a haunting story of inexplicable connections, and Coelho resists spelling out its mysteries, letting readers draw their own conclusions. Ages 7-up. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.