sea-themed literature, and my favorites are not the most famous. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (book three in The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis) or The Odyssey for Kids, as I call it. This is the children’s version of the journey tale, like Lord of the Rings, Don Quixote, or Canterbury Tales.
It is a continuation of the first two books in the series: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobeand Prince Caspian. Edmund and Lucy Pevensie are stuck in the home of relatives with an annoying cousin, Eustace, when they fall into Narnia through a painting of the sea, complete with the ship that will rescue them.
The plot is a series of fantastical adventures. The ship, The Dawn Treader, sets out to find some missing lords and Aslan’s country, i.e heaven. It does contain a lovely passage about death, but don’t let that stop you. Somehow it does not feel like a loss but a continuation of a journey. And as in the previous books, the children find themselves sadly back in our world. It is the adventures on the different islands as well as the descriptions of these places that make this a fun read. “...the other two (Lucy and Edmund) were delighted with the Dawn Treader, and when they...saw the whole western sky lit up with an immense crimson sunset, and felt the quiver of the ship, and tasted the salt on their lips and thought of unknown lands on the eastern rim of the world, Lucy felt that she was almost too happy to speak.” Flotsam, by David Wiesner, was published in 2006. I’m saddened that it was too late for my childhood. If I had encountered this book at the age of eight, I would have spent hours immersed the glorious illustrations. This Caldecott winner tells the story only in pictures of a seemingly ordinary object that washes up on a beach at the feet of a curious boy. To say anymore would be to ruin the surprise but go to your nearest independent bookstore and get a copy to give to any harried parent with a bored child. You should read it before you give it away. One Morning in Maine, a 1953 Caldecott Honor winner by Robert McCloskey (1914-2003) is a book I go to when I’m feeling particularly nostalgic. As author and illustrator of only eight children’s books, including the Homer Price books, Lentil,Make Way for Ducklings andBlueberries for Sal, his batting average for Caldecott winners (2) and