I Want a Boat!

by Liz Garton Scanlon, Kevan Atteberry (Illustrator)

Overview

A box is never just a box when you have a vivid imagination and a couple stuffed animal friends to join you on a fantastic ocean voyage.

I have a box,
I want a boat.

With nothing but spare text and a bright imagination, I Want a Boat! follows a girl as she finds a way to transform a plain old box in an ordinary room into a magical sailboat, complete with a rudder, sail, and anchor. She and her stuffed-animal friends take to the high seas, encounter raging storms, and make it to dry land, just in time for supper.

Award-winning author Liz Garton Scanlon's sprightly text and candy-colored, kid-friendly illustrations by Kevan Atteberry (Ghost Cat, Dear Beast) make this a perfect read-aloud for the youngest child.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823447152
Publisher:	Holiday House
Publication date:	06/22/2021
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	529,339
Product dimensions:	9.31(w) x 10.28(h) x 0.36(d)
Age Range:	4 - 6 Years

About the Author

Liz Garton Scanlon is the author of many picture books for young readers including the New York Times bestseller and Caldecott Honor book All the World, illustrated by Marla Frazee.

Kevan Atteberry has written and illustrated several books for children, including Ghost Cat, which Publishers Weekly called "A comforting story of memory, longing, and hope." He is also the illustrator of the middle-grade series Dear Beast, by Dori Hillestad Butler, Tickle Monster, and Boogie Monster. He lives in the Seattle area.

Editorial Reviews

04/05/2021

On this book’s title page, a child with a mop of red hair and dot eyes finds a wooden box among garbage outside and drags it indoors. “I have a box. I want a boat,” writes Scanlon (Thank You, Garden), and the child’s imagination does the rest. A rudder appears, and a green sail. With the boat sorted, the adventure needs getting: “I have a sail. I want the sea!” results in ocean waves lapping at the bedroom rug, witnessed by a small crew of stuffed animals. Soon underway, the sailor is accompanied by a friendly sea turtle, a striped fish, and three stuffed animals to serve as the crew. Atteberry (Ghost Cat) creates a toy-box world of soft forms, scribble-shadowed waves, and swirling breezes. When “I have the sky. I want a storm” conjures a tempest that blows the crew overboard, the child’s surroundings-shaping power makes it reasonably easy to restore calm. The draw of the story is the young protagonist’s ability to brings needs to life via imagination—power that Scanlon emphasizes with the punch of repeating, easily memorized prose. Ages 4–6. Agent (for Scanlon and Atteberry): Erin Murphy, Erin Murphy Literary. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"All sails are set and pulling in this imaginative matchup of words and pictures. —Kirkus Reviews

"In I Want a Boat! dynamic illustrations and tightly focused prose combine for a boatload of high-seas fun."—BookPage

"Scanlon has written a wonderful read-aloud picture book for imaginative and adventurous readers.”—Booklist

"Watercolor, acrylic, and digital illustrations are vividly colored and absolutely adorable. . . . Little ones will connect with and be inspired by the girl’s passion for adventure as she sails on the wild, rollicking sea. The ending lends itself to imaginative free play."—School Library Journal

"Atteberry (Ghost Cat) creates a toy-box world of soft forms, scribble-shadowed waves, and swirling breezes. . . . The draw of the story is the young protagonist’s ability to brings needs to life via imagination—power that Scanlon emphasizes with the punch of repeating, easily memorized prose."—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

12/24/2021

PreS-Gr 1—A little red-haired girl wants a boat, but all she has is a box. Enter her imagination. The box quickly becomes a boat on the wild sea, on which she sails with her crew of stuffed animals. Each page has one to two very simple sentences, repeating the phrase from the previous one. "I have the sea. I want a map. I have a map. I want a crew." Watercolor, acrylic, and digital illustrations are vividly colored and absolutely adorable. Scenes with the girl in her "boat" are centered on the page, and with each page turn, a new item is added to the fun. Little ones will connect with and be inspired by the girl's passion for adventure as she sails on the wild, rollicking sea. The ending lends itself to imaginative free play. VERDICT A fun purchase for maker spaces, toddler story time, and classroom play.—Tracy Cronce, Stevens Point Pub. Sch. District, WI

School Library Journal

2021-04-14
A young child uses their imagination to conjure up a boat, a sea, and an adventure. And that’s just the beginning.

The story begins with wordless illustrations showing a child (illustrated with pale skin and red hair) dragging a box to their room. “I have a box. / I want a boat,” the child states. As the child’s imagination kicks into gear, boat, rudder, sail, sea, map, and crew are all imaginatively conjured. But when a storm is asked for, things get a bit dicey. (It all ends well.) The clipped narrative delivers a sturdy bass line thrumming with appealing protagonist confidence, but it is the illustrations that make it all a resounding success. With both clarity and a confident understatement that echoes the confidence of the narrative, the full-color illustrations are presented with a fine attention to detail that enriches and deepens the story, enabling readers to use their own imaginations as they pick out what has changed illustratively and what is developing. On a broader scale, the page-by-page design also augments the theme: When the child’s imagination hasn’t yet soared, the illustrations are contained by white space on which the text is printed. As the child’s imagination takes hold, the text is included inside the boxed illustrations, and as the imagination takes over, the illustrations become full-bleed double-page spreads.

All sails are set and pulling in this imaginative matchup of words and pictures. (Picture book. 3-8)

Kirkus Reviews