I’m a big fan of Matthew Cordell’s work. I was on the 2018 Caldecott committee that chose Wolf in the Snow, and I selected Evergreen last year for the Robin Smith Picture Book Prize. So, what do I like about Cordell’s latest outing, The Ship in the Window written by Travis Jonker? First, I like picture books that tell a good story in full, lively text and engaging illustrations, and this certainly does that. With a boy watching but not helping, a man spends months building a model boat, his prized possession, only to have Mabel the mouse steal the ship and get it out on the water, wondering if it “could sail like a real ship?” It does...until she crashes it on the rocks and has to swim for her life. The man is proud that his boat was seaworthy, and he gets to work rebuilding it, now with the help of the boy and the mouse. It’s a great read-aloud with a beginning, middle, and end.

How is this put together as a picture book? When examining how a picture book works, I use “How to read a picture book, the Caldecott edition,” guidelines published at Calling Caldecott by my wife, Robin Smith. I start with the cover. Here, a gorgeous cover that establishes the old-fashioned look of the book. Three mini-portraits are incorporated: Mabel and the boy wearing watch caps, and the man wearing what looks like a Greek fisherman’s hat, each framed by knotted rope. The cover establishes the artistic style of the book: Cordell’s signature scratchy crosshatch pen work and watercolor painting, here emphasizing a palette of faded blues, golden yellows, and blue grays. The front and back endpapers are blue, with no illustrations, which is appropriate given the watery blue cover illustration and the busyness of the pages. As he did with Wolf in the Snow, Cordell begins the story before the title page, establishing the setting with a page for the cozy gray-blue house with smoke rising from the chimney and yellow light in one window; two pages show the man meticulously building the boat, setting readers up for his later dismay at the loss of such careful work (young readers will enjoy looking for Mabel in the illustrations), and a double-page spread of the finished boat itself, the full-bleed illustration wrought in sepia tones, with Cordell’s Micron pen work for the rigging. The pages proceed with an effective mix of single- and double-page illustrations, some full-bleed, and some vignettes with knotted rope frames.

The essential feature of a great picture book (except wordless ones) is that the illustrations extend the text, adding information and fun beyond what the words tell us. In that section before the title page, no words tell us how careful the man is; the illustrations tell us that. Look at the last double-page spread with the boat capsized, Mabel panicking in the water, the man looking at his damaged boat, and the boy looking at Mabel. So much important stuff is going on, yet there are no words! The same is true for the next single page: the man with a sad expression as he clutches his damaged boat, the boy holding Mabel, each of them smiling, knowing they are now friends. All without words. Ultimately, readers don’t need to be told the book has a happy ending. We don’t need to say that Mabel has been promoted from a furtive onlooker from various corners of the illustrations, she is now helping to rebuild the ship. The boy, too, simply watched the man building the boat early on. Now, they are working center stage in the penultimate illustration; the man has learned to include others, the boy is helping, and Mabel has been made captain! Character development is mainly told in the illustrations.

The 2023 revision of the Caldecott Manual is online, and for our purposes here, it all boils down to five simply worded criteria regarding excellence: artistic technique; pictorial interpretation of story/theme/concept; appropriateness of the style for the story/theme/etc.; delineation of plot and characters; effectiveness for a child audience. I think I have shown the excellence of The Ship in the Window on all five counts. Not only is this a great story, but it is also masterful bookmaking. If I were on the 2025 Caldecott committee, I would be an advocate for this book!

[Read The Horn Book Magazine review of The Ship in the Window]