This is one gorgeous picture book.
![boats for papa](https://s3.amazonaws.com/ArchiveImages/HB/2015/09/boats-for-papa-300x243.jpg)
This is one gorgeous picture book. It's perhaps even more remarkable, given that it's by a debut artist. Since its publication last June, it has
gotten lots of love. And
even more love.
Most reviews refer to the way the story tugs at the heartstrings: "A weeper." "Heart-breaking." I have to say that the message I took away from the book was less Look How Much They Love Each Other and more Watch This Young Boy Become an Artist. By trying to make the best boat possible for his absent father, Buckley hones his craft: "And each time he made a new boat, it was even better than the last." Little by little, through hard work and incentive and love and practice and more practice, we see his initial crude efforts — essentially just hunks of driftwood with sticks for masts — become sophisticated, complex, intricate, beautifully crafted works of art.
The ink and watercolor illustrations are simply stunning. The watercolor medium is of course an apt one for this edge-of-the-ocean tale, but that doesn't begin to express how completely Bagley captures the look and feel of a driftwood- and seaweed-strewn shore. From the colors of water, sand, and sky at various times of day to the way she conveys that sometimes-undefinable edge between ocean and beach and between ocean and sky: it's all spectacular. She also transitions organically from the shorescapes to the scenes set inside Buckley's humble home. The use of line (and ink) in the indoor scenes make them tighter and more controlled, and yet the edges of the pictures always retain that watery feel, linking them to the outdoor scenes.
The endpapers are both thematically meaningful and glorious. I love how the driftwood scattered over the beach on the opening endpapers then morph into Buckley's finished boats hanging on his display wall on the closing endpapers. The endpapers visually reflect the book's theme of turning raw materials into art.
There are a few things that throw me off a bit:
- Why are the characters beavers? It seems an odd choice for a book set not by a lake or pond but by the sea.
- For a debut picture book creator, Bagley seems comfortable and in control. She allows the story to unfold at a very deliberate and leisurely pace. She has confidence in her ability to hold readers' attention for what is really (outwardly, at least) a not-very-eventful story. Nevertheless, the pacing at the start is off, for me. The book opens with a series of double-page spreads of the shorescape, and they set the scene beautifully. But, if you count the opening endpapers, we get four of these scene-setting double-page spreads, and then the first time we get to the true meat of the book — Buckley making things with his hands — that happens in a teeny little vignette.
- I can't shake the feeling that the story has an adult sensibility. Everyone seems to agree that the book will generate strong emotions in readers, but I see more adults getting all choked up than children. However, this may not be of primary importance to the Caldecott committee, which is looking at the art first and the text/story only secondarily.
Over to you all! What are your thoughts about this very impressive picture book debut and its chances on the Caldecott table?
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Lori Swope
This is an excellent book to read for students to understand the difference between prediction and inference... where is papa? Students will work with their own schema for that one!Posted : Jan 14, 2017 01:05
Martha V. Parravano
So nice to hear from you, Alec! Thanks for your astute comments. Yes, it's like Bagley used a new medium for the book: Xtreme watercolor. And it works perfectly. All the comments here have given me a deeper appreciation for BOATS FOR PAPA. Who knows? a similar thing might be happening with the actual committee :)Posted : Nov 09, 2015 04:43
Alec Chunn
Joining this discussion a bit late, but I think it's never too late to talk shop about picture books! At first, I resisted this title because it does have that adult sensibility. But there are two aspects of the illustration that I can't get over: (1) The way that the watercolor bleeds on some pages. It almost looks like someone cried on the book and adds a melancholy tone to the art that is also woven into the text. (2) That double page spread where Buckley is showing Mama all the schematics for the boats and the border is faintly in the shape of a beaver. It's like he's symbolically reconstructing his Papa with these boats. So beautiful. I'm excited about this book's award potential (especially since Bagley is from the PNW!). Thanks for posting.Posted : Nov 08, 2015 06:48
Josh Funk
So I stumbled across this on BOATS FOR PAPA author Jessixa Bagley's website (see full post here: http://jessixabagley.blogspot.com/2015/10/intentions.html ): "I genuinely created this book with children in mind. I myself was basically Buckley, and I know there are many children out there who have absence in their life. I felt so different from others because my father wasn't there everyday. But my mother was-something I only began to realize and appreciate the depth of once I became an adult. So by sharing my story, I hoped to create something that would make a child connect to the content in some way-so that they would feel safe and loved and not alone. Absence takes so many shapes and means different things for everyone, and maybe some young children don't have personal experience with it, but knowing you have love still around you is something I feel that every child (and adult) can benefit from. And hopefully creates conversations about compassion for others who do have personal experience with it. So I hoped that even if absence isn't a connection for the reader, that love is. The overwhelming byproduct of this book touching adults in an emotional way has been beautiful, but wasn't the motivation for the work. I honestly had no clue that adults would feel so strongly about it. I felt I had created something that was touching, and I hope that everyone who reads it at least understands its heart in some way, but adults weren't the target at all. I just got a letter from a friend who shared that he wished he had this book when he lost his father when he was 6. And so many others have shared they felt a level of personal healing from reading it and yes- these were adults. But another friend says every time they read the book and they get to the part when Buckley thanks his mama, he turns around and kisses her! And I just read a Facebook post about a friend of a friend who's son "finally connected with a book about grief" and he asked her to read it twice and then he made a boat. I totally lost it. I understand that a child emotional depth is different than an adult-but something made him feel and connect when he read it. And that is what I am so humbled and honored to be apart of. Whether I'm helping the 6 year old in real life or the 6 year old inside an adult, I can't tell you how much that touches my soul." For me, the mother son relationship is what hits home. The larger, more important theme that I can't directly associate with is the single-parent home. There are very few picture books with this topic, but certainly MANY children living this life - including the author (yes, Llama Llama exists, but that theme is not the focal point of the series). Bagley manages to tell this story with such depth on multiple emotional levels. And as far as Caldecott is concerned, she does it with the eye, brush, and heart of a talented and finely trained artist.Posted : Oct 07, 2015 04:59
Josh Funk
I agree, I think Waiting is perfectly paced. In some ways, And yet sometimes I think the pages of Waiting could be rearranged in any order and it would still work well. I'm a sucker for inanimate objects books (reminded me of Edward Tulane, as I'm sure it did for many). I think part of my attraction to Boats for Papa might also be that I may have some underlying Mommy issues which I need to work out on a personal level. Rarely do I find books that give me chills like this one does. Zen Ghosts, The Gardener - for me, these are a rare breed.Posted : Oct 06, 2015 07:14