Boat of Dreams

Book excerpt: Selected for the 2018 Bank Street College of Education Best Children’s Books of the Year 2017 NYPL Best Books for Kids List *2017 IPPY Independent Publishers Gold Medalist* *Starred Review School Library Journal* *Starred Review- Booklist* *Brazil's 2015 Jabuti Award for best children's illustration* How does a fastidious old man with bowler, umbrella, suspenders, and a Salvador Dali mustache come to live on a deserted island? 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.