From: DAJ <daj9999>
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2007 18:09:37 -0800 (PST)

I loved Flotsam at first sight, and, although my copy is at the office, I'm going to try to write about some of the reasons why from memory.

First is the way it plays with ideas about perspective and observation, beginning with the cover image (with the tiny camera incorporated into the fish's eye), continuing with the young boy (who, like the boy in Sector 7, is an observer -- which is why he finds the camera) and the many different ways of seeing
(microscope, camera, signs inside the store) and the multiple ways Wiesner uses the page to suggest multiple ways pictures work (double page spreads, overlays, continuous narration, triompe l'oeil).

There are also the visual and thematic connections with Wiesner's other works -- the pig, as someone mentioned; the fish and octopus (from Hurricane, Free Fall, Three Pigs, Sector 7, and loosely related to the aliens in June 29), the old-fashioned living room
(similar to Wiesner's own in Hurricane and the one in Tuesday), the idea of the child on a voyage of intellectual and imaginative discovery, continually learning there's so much richness underneath the surface waiting to be discovered.

DAJ


19th-Century Girls' Series http://readseries.com/index.html


 
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Received on Thu 01 Feb 2007 08:09:37 PM CST