Bibliography:
Wiesner, David. 2006. Flotsam. New York: Clarion Books. ISBN 9780618194575
Plot Summary:
Flotsam is a wordless picture book that tells the intriguing story of a young boy’s amazing discovery on the beach one afternoon. The boy follows beach-dwelling creatures along the sandy shore, paying special attention to crabs and snails. Treading too closely to the surf, he is overtaken by a small wave and a mysterious camera drifts onto the shore. The boy takes the camera to his parents, who then instruct him to take it to a lifeguard. Apparently, the lifeguard has heard no claims about a missing camera and tells the boy to keep it. The boy looks inside the camera and discovers undeveloped film. He takes the film to a local photo shop to have it developed, and the boy marvels at the photographs taken by the mysterious camera.
There are pictures of underwater creatures doing mundane surface things such as reading to their families, there are mechanical fish, and public transportation, as well as fish flying in blowfish powered hot air balloons. The most astonishing things he finds are photographs of children, like him, from various regions of the world and various time periods. Each child featured holds the photograph of the previous child who has found the camera. The boy decides to continue the chain of photographs and snaps a shot of him holding the photograph of the camera’s previous owner, then tosses the camera back into the tide for it to find yet another owner, so the chain can continue.
Critical Analysis:
Flotsam is a true work of art when it comes to wordless picture books. The oil paintings are realistic, the colors bright and vivid, the lines bold and defined. The artwork alone captures the eyes and mind, and the sensational pictorial story-telling creates a beautiful plot that can be interpreted in various ways by various minds.
In this story, children are invited to take a sneak peek into a secret world where marine life take on humanoid characteristics and perform our daily human tasks under the sea. The sequence of each frame tells a clear, yet unpredictable story from realistic, to fantastic, back to realistic again.
The final photos the boy views are of children around his age from different nationalities in different places of the world and different time periods. The setting in each picture is always near an ocean or sea but there are slight differences in the wildlife and natural scenery, such as trees native to certain parts of the world, or difference rock structures. The most interesting photographs are perhaps the ones that are portals in time. The more photographs the boy flips through, the older the pictures become, the oldest picture featuring a boy standing in the surf with women wearing Victorian skirts in the background.
The camera is like a chain letter, forever traveling to children around the world by way of sea. The boy takes a photograph of himself holding the previous photograph and returns the camera to the water. The fish carry it away and hopefully they will take more pictures of their secret lives under the waves for the next child to view. The passage of time as the camera is passed to the next owner is unclear, but it does wash up on different shore, perhaps Hawaiian, there are palm trees on the beach, for another child to find.
The photograph the protagonist takes of himself features him holding the previous picture while sitting in front of the surf. A wave comes and washes the other pictures from the camera away. It makes one ponder the history just lost to the sea, but perhaps it happened for a reason. Or perhaps the camera is magic, and the old film lost will reappear in the camera, for it is obvious that the previous children had to have developed the film too, to know what to do before sending the camera on.
This story causes a child to exercise his or her imagination and think of possibilities and make connections from frame to frame. It is an amazing wordless tale that younger children can enjoy the vivid imagery of and older children can appreciate for its mystery.
Other books written and illustrated by Weisner also depict clear plots despite the lack of words and use the same beautiful artistry as seen in Flotsam.
Review Excerpts:
“Filled with inventive details and delightful twists, each snapshot is a tale waiting to be told. Pair this visual adventure with Wiesners other works, Chris Van Allsburgs titles, or Barbara Lehmans The Red Book (Houghton, 2004) for a mind-bending journey of imagination.”–Joy Fleishhacker, School Library Journal
“The masterful watercolors and ingeniously layered perspectives create a clear narrative, and viewers will eagerly fill in the story's wordless spaces with their own imagined story lines.” –Gillian Enberg, Booklist
"Wiesner offers another exceptional, wordless picture book that finds wild magic in quiet, everyday settings." Booklist, ALA, Starred Review
"In Wiesner's much-honored style, the paintings are cinematic, coolly restrained and deliberate...An invitation not to be resisted." Kirkus Reviews, Starred
"Wiesner returns with his traditional wordless-narrative format for another fantastical outing." Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Caldecott Medal, 2006
Best Illustrated Children’s Book Awards, Book Review (The New York Times)
Connections:
This story can be used in classrooms as something to spur brainstorming sessions or to encourage creativity. The art of pictorial storytelling without words depends on perfectly executed sequencing, and children can learn about chronological sequencing of events.
Other books that educators, librarians and parents may look for to accompany this book are:
Weisner, David. 1991. Tuesday. New York: Clarion Books. ISBN 978-0395551134
Weisner, David. 2008. Free Fall. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0061567414
Weisner, David. 1995. June 29, 1999. Eastsound, WA: Turtleback Press. ISBN 978-0613067454
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