The Old Boat

by Jarrett Pumphrey, Jerome Pumphrey

Overview

A Washington Post Best Children's Book of 2021

A New York Public Library Best Book of 2021

The creators of The Old Truck set sail with an old boat and an evocative, intricately crafted exploration of home and family.

Off a small island,

an old boat sets sail

and a young boy

finds home.

Together, boy and boat ride the shifting tides, catching wants and wishes until fate calls for a sea change. Brothers and collaborators Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey’s newest picture book is a masterfully crafted celebration of the natural world and tribute to the families we make and the homes that we nurture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781324005179
Publisher:	Norton Young Readers
Publication date:	03/02/2021
Pages:	56
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 11.10(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	AD320L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Jarrett Pumphrey is an author/illustrator and the former cofounder and CEO of a tech startup. He lives in Austin, Texas.

Jerome Pumphrey is an author/illustrator and a graphic designer at the Walt Disney Company. He lives in Austin, Texas.

Editorial Reviews

"A quiet, thought-provoking story of environmental change and the power humans have to slow it."— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

From the Publisher

★ 2020-12-25
A multigenerational tale of a boat’s life with a Black family, written by two brothers who loved similar boats.

In the opening spread, a smiling, brown-skinned adult dangles a line from the back of a green-and-white boat while a boy peers eagerly over the side at the sea life. The text never describes years passing, but each page turn reveals the boy’s aging, more urban development on the shore, increasing water pollution, marine-life changes (sea jellies abound on one page), and shifting water levels. Eventually, the boy, now a teenager, steers the boat, and as an adult, he fishes alone but must go farther and farther out to sea to make his catch. One day, the man loses his way, capsizes in a storm, and washes up on a small bay island, with the overturned, sunken boat just offshore. Now a “new sailor” cleans up the land and water with others’ help. The physical similarities between the shipwrecked sailor and the “new sailor” suggest that this is not a new person but one whose near-death experience has led to an epiphany that changes his relationship to water. As the decaying boat becomes a new marine habitat, the sailor teaches the next generation (a child with hair in two Afro puffs) to fish. Focusing primarily on the sea, the book’s earth-toned illustrations, created with hundreds of stamps, carry the compelling plot.

A quiet, thought-provoking story of environmental change and the power humans have to slow it. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews