Flotsam

Flotsam
by David Wiesner

Synopsis:

Flotsam tells the story of a boy's day at the beach with his family. This wordless picture book illustrates the young boy's retrieval of an underwater camera while spending a day in the sand. Curious about what images the camera holds, the boy rushes to get the pictures developed, and an hour later he is sifting through the film prints. The boy sees wondrous sea shell villages on the backs of sea turtles, larger than life starfish towering above the ocean floor, and even small alien species visiting earth on a class field trip!...or does he?

The ambiguous nature of wordless picture books allow the reader to interpret the illustrations from seemingly endless perspectives. David Wiesner's Flotsam is a "reading" experience that not many will want to pass up!

Response:

The book Flotsam is not a story told in the traditional sense, with words accompanying illustrations. The book asks the reader to construct the meaning while using the detailed illustrations provided by the author David Wiesner. While I was originally drawn to reading this because I was reminded of the front cover while I flipped through Red Ripe Strawberry, it did bear some similarities other than the use of red.

I thought both stories were a good demonstration of how a story can be told through illustrations. The feelings of the mouse in Red Ripe Strawberry, and his determination to hold onto his prize were made clear even without the words, and obviously Flotsam is a story told completely without text. The story is the illustrations.

That fact allows for complete interpretive authority on the part of the reader. For young students it's an opportunity to create their own story using a medium that traditionally gives you the complete story, in writing, from start to finish. It is unique to see a bound picture book with no words and I think the Wiesner's artistic ability makes the book a joy to "read" over and over again!

Book Activity:

This book would be a great way to demonstrate multiple perspectives or interpretations of a text. The nature of the story being open-ended would make a clear connection for students of the ability to interpret the same text in many different ways. That being said, the book activity for Flotsam is clear.

As a class we would do a picture walk, even though the story is all pictures, without telling students there were no words to go along with the story. I would give students the opportunity to make observations and predictions about the text - what is happening, will happen next, etc., as such occurs in a typical picture walk. Then we would go through the book again, with their observations and predictions in mind, and reveal the fact that there are no words to tell the reader exactly what is happening. After that students would create their own story to accompany the illustrations of this book.

For this type of lesson/activity I would have extra copies of Flotsam available, along with other wordless picture books. Students would be allowed to create an original story to go with any of the available wordless picture books.