The Wreck of the
Zephyr
A.
The Wreck of the Zephyr details the
journey of a boy who gets lost on his boat when he tries to sail through a
heavy storm. The child encounters a
group of people who can use their sailboats to capture a wind which allows them
to fly and the boy is immediately smitten with the idea. He eventually learns how to fly his own boat
but crashes it when he returns home and is unable to get it back in the
air. It is implied that the storyteller
at the end is that boy after he has grown up and that to this day he continues
to try to return to the place where he first learned to fly a ship.
B.
Van
Allsburg, C. (1983). The wreck of the zephyr.
Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton
Mifflin Company.
C.
Overall,
I thought the book was beautifully done.
The illustrations are lavish and expressive and the story is accessible
with some similarity to the mythological story of Icarus. The subject matter is generally universal
with whimsical adventure and the heart of exploration being the primary
themes. It is a book that can be easily
enjoyed by anyone, young or old, and captures the sense of unyielding devotion
we as humanity has toward finding our way to what we want most.
D.
“To
the voluptuous forms and rich design which mark his black-and-white work, Van Allsburg
has added colors which conjure the changing aspects of sunlight, moonlight, shadow
and storm on water and air.” –French
French, J. (1983). The wreck of the
Zephyr (Book Review). School Library Journal,
2967.
E.
One
of the better ideas for this book would be to have the kids design a
sailboat. I would ask them to imagine
what sort of special sail would help them fly.
I would emphasize that they think what these sails are made out of and
maybe even provide sails of different materials to attach to their boats. This could be generally simple things such as
paper, up to cloth or foil sails as well.
The boats could either be simple wooden popsicle stick constructions or
just made out of construction paper.
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