Toy Boat - Hardcover

Randall de Sève made her debut as an author with the New York Times bestseller Toy Boat, illustrated by Loren Long. She is also the author of The Duchess of Whimsy, illustrated by her husband, Peter de Sève. Randall lives with Peter and their two daughters in Brooklyn, New York.

To learn more about Randall de Sève, go to www.randalldeseve.com

Loren Long has puff puttedy chuffed his way all over the bestseller lists with such titles as Otis, Otis and the Tornado, Otis and the Puppy, Drummer Boy, The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper, Toy Boat by Randall de Seve, Mr. Peabody's Apples by Madonna, and Of Thee I Sing by President Barack Obama. Loren lives in a suburb of Cincinnati with his wife and their two sons, all frequent visitors to his studio, where they see the art and hear the stories first.
To learn more about Loren Long and his books, go to www.lorenlong.com or www.otisthetractor.com

A boy's handmade toy boat plays the metaphorical role of a child longing for independence in de Seve's auspicious first picture book. The text begins in simple language that lightly implies a parent/child bond: "The boy loved the boat, and they were never apart. They bathed together. They slept together." Every day the boy sails the boat in the lake, holding onto it with a string. Usually the boat feels content, but occasionally the sight of big boats awakens its curiosity about "what it would feel like to sail free." A sudden change in the weather occasions the toy boat's premature adventure out of the boy's protective grasp, described in suspenseful text and acrylics that imaginatively extend de Seve's story. Long (the re-illustrated Little Engine that Could) shrewdly illustrates no persons other than David, even though David's mother plays a pivotal part. Rather, the toy boat has a face (readers should look carefully at the cork holding its mast) and, as it encounters the big boats at last, each wears its own visible personality. A giant ferry occupying most of a spread bears down on the toy boat, its windows, decks and trimmings shaped into an enraged visage, complete with glaring eyes and pursed lips; the toy boat shrinks dramatically in the wake of a huge speedboat depicted as a flame-colored shark. Not until the reassuring conclusion can the toy boat again be seen from the boy's perspective. A resonant tale with wide appeal. Ages 2-up.
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