Floatsam - By David Wiesner

Flotsam is another wonderful book created by David Wiesner (Clarion Books New York. 2006). It does not have any words and the pictures tell the wonderful story.

A boy finds an old camera on the beach. He brings it around to see if the camera belongs to anyone, but no one knows where it came from. He brings the film from the camera in to be developed. After waiting a long time, he gets the most amazing photographs. They were taken underwater and show the different worlds in the ocean. A mechanical fish swims by. An octopus reads a story to young octopi. Shells are like condos with mini people living in them. The pictures are so creative and interesting. The last picture is of a girl holding a photograph of another child holding a photograph of another child holding a photograph, and so on. He uses his microscope to see all the children holding photographs of the other children until he can see the original image. It is a boy on the beach a very long time ago. After scratching his head wondering what to do, he takes a picture of himself holding the photograph and tosses the underwater camera into the ocean. The camera travels through the different worlds of the ocean and is carried by sea life until it reaches the shore and the hands of a girl on a beach far away. This story is full of imagination. The camera shows what we cannot see in the ocean. The photographs of the children are like a conversation they are having through time and passing it on to the next child.

The reading level was set at ages 4-8. I think that this book has a great way of sharing a story with children.

Mini-lesson:
We could do some investigating on what is at the bottom of the ocean. We could start a research project, watch a video of a deep sea scuba diver, and write our own story of life out in the sea where there aren't any people. We could discover new worlds and share them with small groups.