Captain Sky Blue

( 1 )

Overview

Fun and adventure from Caldecott Medal winner Richard Egielski

Jack's best toy pal is Captain Sky Blue, a pilot. Sky speaks in Pilot Talk ("Roger! Wilco!").

After a thunderstorm separates Sky and his buddy ("Mayday!"), Sky is abducted by a whale, then left alone to wander a frigid ocean floor until he chances upon a very special place, a place where he's been before ("Now I'm spooled up!").

Captain Sky Blue ...

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More About This Book

Overview

Fun and adventure from Caldecott Medal winner Richard Egielski

Jack's best toy pal is Captain Sky Blue, a pilot. Sky speaks in Pilot Talk ("Roger! Wilco!").

After a thunderstorm separates Sky and his buddy ("Mayday!"), Sky is abducted by a whale, then left alone to wander a frigid ocean floor until he chances upon a very special place, a place where he's been before ("Now I'm spooled up!").

Captain Sky Blue thinks he has finally found an easy way home, but first he must face a desperate situation--a challenge that puts his pilot skills to the test!

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Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
Egielski (Gumption!) is in top form in this story that begins on Christmas day and ends one year later, careening wildly in between. From start to finish, it has the feel of an old-fashioned adventure. On Christmas morning, Jack receives Captain Sky Blue and, with the toy's help, assembles a model plane. One day, the wind blows Jack's hat away, and Sky zooms off to retrieve it. Lightning strikes and his plane breaks up, plunging the pilot into a fraught journey that involves a humpback whale, Santa's underwater workshop, and a tumultuous ride on that famed sleigh. Egielski's boldly outlined artwork lends the story a cinematic scope--raindrops are nearly as big as Sky's forearm as lightning tears his plane apart, and in a later scene the whale scrunches up on the left page to blast the tiny pilot out its blowhole into open white space. Airplane-obsessed readers will be thrilled with the aeronautical jargon Sky uses throughout--"We've hit the goo! Allow me to pilot this bird!" he shouts at Santa, as the sleigh is threatened by a wild storm. "Bravo Zulu," indeed. Ages 3–7. (Sept.)
Children's Literature - Della A. Yannuzzi
One Christmas morning, Jack gets a special present—an imaginary toy friend named Captain Sky Blue. Together they build a small airplane for Sky to pilot and have fun together until one windy day Sky's plane gets hit by lightning. While Jack is left alone on the ground, Sky is taken far away where he parachutes into the ocean. His adventure continues when he is caught in a whale's blowhole and finally escapes and lands onto an iceberg. He begins to explore the ocean and comes to an underwater structure with an elevator that takes him up to an open gate. The big wonderful room looks familiar. He finds a tag, writes Jack's name on it, and puts the tag on a present. Sky falls asleep and wakes up in Santa's sleigh which is being tossed and turned in a snowstorm. Sky takes the sleigh's controls and lands them safely on Jack's rooftop. The next morning, Jack opens his present and there is Captain Sky Blue, safe and sound after a perilous journey. Back material includes Pilot Talk terms. The illustrations are full-paged, action-packed, and colorful. The story is pure fantasy, but young children will love the adventures of Captain Sky Blue. Reviewer: Della A. Yannuzzi
School Library Journal
PreS-Gr 1—When Jack receives a toy pilot and an airplane kit for Christmas, he plays with them all year long, until an autumn storm blows Captain Sky Blue into the ocean. After an encounter with a whale and an iceberg, Sky finds himself back in Santa's headquarters. Helping the big man pilot his sleigh through fierce weather, he is finally reunited with Jack on Christmas morning. Yes, the plot is a bit choppy (that transition from ocean floor to Santa's toy factory, for instance) and underdeveloped, but the energetic text is full of colorful pilot terminology ("spooled up" for excited), and the large pages highlight Egielski's usual clean and colorful illustrations. Not an essential purchase, but fine for kids who are wired for action.—Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public Library
Kirkus Reviews

In a robust tale for Traction Man fans, the diminutive pilot that Jack finds beneath the Christmas tree roars off in his newly assembled airplane for a series of wild adventures. His commentary laced with "pilot talk" that will have readers flipping to the endpaper glossary, the Captain survives lightning ("Time for a nylon letdown!") and being sucked into a whale's blowhole ("Uh-oh! Gotta punch out of this gomer!") before finding a huge and familiar warehouse stocked with toys ("NOW I'M SPOOLED UP!"). Sporting a cool flight suit and the requisite cap and goggles, the intrepid aviator makes his way through one comical crisis after another—ultimately steering Santa's sleigh through a howling storm ("WE'VE HIT THE GOO! ALLOW ME TO PILOT THIS BIRD!") to a safe Touchdown on Jack's roof and a happy reunion. (Picture book. 5-7)

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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780545213424
  • Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
  • Publication date: 9/1/2010
  • Pages: 40
  • Sales rank: 692,645
  • Age range: 4 - 8 Years
  • Product dimensions: 8.80 (w) x 12.00 (h) x 0.50 (d)

Meet the Author

Richard Egielski received the 1987 Caldecott Medal for HEY, AL, story by Arthur Yorinks, and he has also illustrated texts by Pam Conrad, Margie Palatini, David LaRochelle, and Jonah Winter. The books he has both written and illustrated include BUZ and JAZPER, both named Best Illustrated Children's Books of the year by The New York Times.

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Sort by: Showing 1 Customer Review

  • Anonymous

    Posted December 29, 2010

    Not a bad story just not interesting

    Got this book for my child, as she loves anything with airplanes. Was not very interesting at all and not worth the price.

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