The Toy Boat - Hardcover

Loren Long grew up in Lexington, Kentucky. He pursued graduate-level studies at the American Academy of Art in Chicago after graduating with a BA in Graphic Design/Art Studio from the University of Kentucky. After graduation Long worked as an illustrator for a greeting card company in Cincinnati before beginning his career as a freelance illustrator.

Since then, Long has received numerous accolades for his fluid WPA painting style. He has been awarded two gold medals from the Society of Illustrators in New York, and has been frequently selected for their annual exhibition and book. His work has also appeared in many other major annual exhibitions such as American Illustration, Communication Arts, Step By Step Graphics and Print.

Long’s clients include Time Magazine, Reader’s Digest, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Atlantic Monthly, Boy’s Life, Land’s End, Sports Illustrated and HBO. He has also illustrated book covers for numerous publishers and has recently concentrated on illustrating books for young readers where his work has garnered much recognition and praise.

Recent awards/accolades:

2002

The United Nations chose to hang in their lobby Long’s painting of a firefighter in action, along with 21 other selections from the Prevailing Human Spirit Show at the Society of Illustrators.

2003

Recipient of the Golden Kite Award for picture book illustration, presented by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators for I Dream of Trains. The book was also selected as one of the New York Public Library’s 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing, 2003.

2004

Winner of the Parents' Choice Gold Award.

Illustrates New York Times #1 best-seller, Mr. Peabody’s Apples

To learn more about Loren Long and his books, go to www.lorenlong.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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