Flotsam

Flotsam
by David Wiesner (2006)

2007 Caldecott Medal Winner

            I distinctly remember the images from some of Wiesner's older books, like Tuesday, from my elementary school days. His recent Caldecott Award winner, Flotsam, tells a more compelling fantasy story than I remember from some of his other books. This wordless book has some pages put together in like comic frames, and others that simply show the minutiae of items on the beach, or the complexity of the pictures from the 'flotsam' camera that the boy in the story finds. No matter what the page's formatting, there is incredible detail in each image. The fantasy aspects of the pictures are mysterious, but they combine familiar objects and sea life in a very natural way. I love the exploratory quality of the story and its main character, and I enjoy the ambiguous but telling title of the book, as well.
             Like other wordless books this book lends itself to creative writing exercises or pre-reading activities for young children or ELLs. The fantasy aspects of the stories will make it very appealing for students and their interpretations could be widely varied. For a class activity each student could be assigned to write about one of the seven pictures that the boy found in the camera, and since each story would have to integrate the camera in some way they would all have a cohesive quality despite their radically different content (like Wiesner's book itself!). Because the illustrations have so much detail creative writing exercises can combine a lot of descriptive words for the settings, combined with the creative aspects of the stories.