Peter Van den Ende

This wordless book about the journey of a paper boat around the world will fascinate both children and adults. There are 96 pages of black-and-white pen-and-ink drawings that have been accurately described by a Kirkus review as mind-blowing.

As the boat travels over and under the oceans we see otherworldly landscapes and habitats both below the depths, on land nearby, and overhead in the night skies. Some of the drawings are realistic, but most are fanciful, showing the product of a prodigious imagination. There are coral beds, fairy-like jellyfish, and deep-sea divers, but also fish-men and underwater horses and elephants and creatures unnamable. The pictures are packed with detail, and will provide hours of entertainment.

Evaluation: This magical odyssey for an audience of all ages is full of wonder and delight.… (mere)

->To capture the feel of the book, I invite you to watch a 1.5 minute video trailer on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnP9uv7BnDg

-> The artist describing the story on YouTube (also 1.5 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyk7bwBuMCs

A sailor and a "mysterious black-clad figure with a crescent-moon-shaped head" create a paper boat and let it free to sail the vast oceans. It encounters seals and whales and crocodiles, and countless magical sea creatures; it travels over coral reefs and past mangroves, under billions of stars and above thousands of eyes; into the polar regions, and skirts several disasters, mostly man-made. Finally, he arrives at a safe harbour. I think the message is be bold, go out and adventure . . . something like that? The little boat is a character, even without a face or words.

It feels a bit funny counting a book with no words as "a read," but there is so much going on in this sumptuous 92 page illustrated book (it's sometimes catalogued as a graphic novel). This is Belgian artist Peter Van Den Ende's first book, and it's won several awards. The detail in the illustrations is amazing, and I thought he must have used a computer for some of it, but I've researched it and it's done with dip pens and India ink. The crosshatching, for example, is masterful.

Recommended for: people who love detailed illustrated books, armchair adventurers

Not recommended for: people who suffer from trypophobia might be triggered by this. When I learned about trypophobia, I learned that I have the opposite--I'm drawn to these patterns. Trypophilia, perhaps? I didn't know that this book would be so satisfying when I ordered it.… (mere)