FICTION

Blue Boat

by Kersten HAMILTON
illus. by Valeria Petrone. 32p. Viking. May 2016. Tr $16.99. ISBN 9780451471413.
COPY ISBN
PreS-Gr 1—When a family's sailboat breaks down on a stormy day, a tug named Blue Boat is called to the rescue. "Missing rudder,/broken fin—/wild nor'easter/blowing in!" The smiling vessel serenely chugs across the choppy water toward a sailboat carrying adults, children, and a dog, all wide-eyed with terror. The boat's red and blue stand out brilliantly against the flat grays of the water and sky, but there is little of visual interest to those who aren't die-hard tugboat fans. The minimal, rhyming text struggles to recall Watty Piper's The Little Engine That Could but is marred by a limping meter and peculiar word choices. Readers are likely to be confused by lines like "Raise the bridge,/tender crew—/rescue boats/coming through!"
VERDICT Pass on this one unless you have throngs of young tugboat fanatics clamoring for new books.
Reviewed by Rachel Anne Mencke, St. Matthew's Parish School, Pacific Palisades, CA
Blue Boat, "a rough, tough tugboat," is the only vessel tough enough to brave the rough seas to save a family stranded on a sailboat during a nor'easter. An energetic text consists of simple rhymes, sound effects, and occasional nautical terms. Retro digital illustrations in blues and grays capture the stormy scene. Refreshingly, our hero's captain is a woman.
 , May 01, 2016

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