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Flotsam Hardcover – Picture Book, September 4, 2006
Purchase options and add-ons
- Print length40 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Grade levelPreschool - 3
- Lexile measureNP
- Dimensions11.25 x 0.38 x 9 inches
- PublisherClarion Books
- Publication dateSeptember 4, 2006
- ISBN-100618194576
- ISBN-13978-0618194575
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
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Read More Books by David Wiesner | It's big sister to the rescue when a new baby is delivered to a family of robots and the adults are flummoxed by technical difficulties. | Mr. Wuffles ignores all his cat toys but one, a spaceship piloted by small green aliens. When Mr. Wuffles plays rough with the little ship, the aliens must venture into the cat's territory to make emergency repairs. | The Caldecott-winning reinvention of “The Three Little Pigs” delights, amazes, and slyly explores the nature of storytelling itself in a bold and satisfying tale. | A beach day is the springboard to a wildly imaginative exploration of fantastical mysteries of the deep—and of human connections through time. |
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The events of a delightfully unpredictable Tuesday invite readers to find the potential for the wondrousness in every day. | Drawing on such diverse influences as Salvador Dali’s work, David Wiesner has crafted a story that goes straight to the essentials—friendship, creativity, and the mysterious point where these two forces intersect. | David Wiesner works his visual magic in this near-wordless account of the most suspenseful, nerve-wracking few seconds in a baseball game. |
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
A bright, science-minded boy goes to the beach equipped to collect and examine flotsam--anything floating that has been washed ashore. Bottles, lost toys, small objects of every description are among his usual finds. But there's no way he could have prepared for one particular discovery: a barnacle-encrusted underwater camera, with its own secrets to share . . . and to keep.
In each of his amazing picture books, David Wiesner has revealed the magical possibilities of some ordinary thing or happening--a frog on a lily pad, a trip to the Empire State Building, a well-known nursery tale. This time, a day at the beach is the springboard into a wildly imaginative exploration of the mysteries of the deep, and of the qualities that enable us to witness these wonders and delight in them.
A Look Inside Flotsam
(Click on Images to Enlarge)
From School Library Journal
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"Wiesner offers another exceptional, wordless picture book that finds wild magic in quiet, everyday settings."
— Booklist (starred review)
"In Wiesner's much-honored style, the paintings are cinematic, coolly restrained and deliberate...An invitation not to be resisted."
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Wiesner's detailed watercolors make the absurd wonderfully believable...and children will surely love 'Flotsam' from start to finish."
— New York Times Book Review, Notable Book
"The meticulous and rich detail of Wiesner's watercolors makes the fantasy involving and convincing."
— Horn Book Magazine
"Wiesner continues to show children that things aren't always what they seem. Would the Caldecott committee consider a three-peat?"
— BookPage
"Wiesner returns with his traditional wordless-narrative format for another fantastical outing." — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
About the Author
David Wiesner is internationally renowned for his visual storytelling and has won the Caldecott Medal three times—for Tuesday, The Three Pigs, and Flotsam—the second person in history to do so. He is also the recipient of three Caldecott Honors, for Free Fall, Sector 7, and Mr. Wuffles. He lives near Philadelphia with his family. david-wiesner.harpercollins.com
Product details
- Publisher : Clarion Books (September 4, 2006)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 40 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0618194576
- ISBN-13 : 978-0618194575
- Reading age : 3 - 7 years, from customers
- Lexile measure : NP
- Grade level : Preschool - 3
- Item Weight : 1.05 pounds
- Dimensions : 11.25 x 0.38 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #35,902 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #110 in Children's Books on Boys' & Men's Issues
- #188 in Children's Marine Life Books
- #2,155 in Children's Activity Books (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

David Wiesner is one of the best-loved and most highly acclaimed picture book creators in the world. His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages and have won numerous awards in the United States and abroad. Three of the picture books he both wrote and illustrated became instant classics when they won the prestigious Caldecott Medal: Tuesday in 1992, The Three Pigs in 2002, and Flotsam in 2007, making him only the second person in the award's long history to have won three times. He has also received two Caldecott Honors, for Free Fall and Sector 7.
Wiesner grew up in suburban New Jersey, known to his classmates as "the kid who could draw." He went on to become a student at the Rhode Island School of Design, where he was able to commit himself to the full-time study of art and to explore further his passion for visual storytelling. He soon discovered that picture books were the perfect vehicle for his work.
Wiesner generally spends several years creating each new book. Many versions are sketched and revised until the story line flows smoothly and each image works the way he wants it to. He creates three-dimensional models of objects he can't observe in real life, such as flying pigs and lizards standing upright, to add authenticity to his drawings.
David Wiesner lives with his family outside Philadelphia.
Customer reviews
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers praise the book's beautiful watercolor paintings and its fascinating tale told without words. Moreover, the book appeals to readers of all ages, making it a wonderful gift for children, and one customer notes it's great for 4-year-olds and up. Additionally, they appreciate the ocean life content, with one review highlighting the examination of sea creatures in tidal pools. However, the wordless nature of the book receives mixed reactions from customers.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
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Customers appreciate the visual elements of the book, particularly its beautiful watercolor paintings and engaging illustrations, with one customer noting its ability to tell a story through pictures.
"I love this book by David Wiesner! The whole story is told in pictures & it's such a great tale. The artwork is phenomenal, really...." Read more
"...The book is based on the wonderful idea of a sort of magical, traveling camera that reveals fantastical, secret, under-the-ocean tableaus...." Read more
"...the child's eye and imagination of Sector 7 with the dizzying draughtmanship and narrative gamemanship of The Three Pigs, Flotsam finds Wiesner the..." Read more
"...It tickles their fancy and stimulates their imagination. This is a must book for every child, kindergarten age and up, including mothers and fathers...." Read more
Customers love the story of this book, describing it as a fascinating tale told without words that is utterly brilliant through its pictures.
"...The whole story is told in pictures & it's such a great tale. The artwork is phenomenal, really...." Read more
"...the wonderful idea of a sort of magical, traveling camera that reveals fantastical, secret, under-the-ocean tableaus...." Read more
"...Mr. Wiesner achieves almost a perfect storyboard, deftly mixing and merging images of varying sizes with his now unequalled mastery of visual..." Read more
"...Children LOVE the bizarre elements of the story. It tickles their fancy and stimulates their imagination...." Read more
Customers appreciate that the book is suitable for children as young as 4 years old and can be enjoyed by adults, making it a wonderful gift choice.
"...It is beautifully illustrated. Gifted to new parents to build their baby library." Read more
"...They didn't really get it. It's better for older children who can understand magnification and microscopes." Read more
"...It is a book which can grow with a child as they sharpen their sight and detection of details. I would obviously recommend this book." Read more
"...It can be enjoyed by adults and children." Read more
Customers appreciate the book's portrayal of ocean life, with one review highlighting its examination of sea creatures in tidal pools, while another describes it as a wonderful undersea world.
"...magical, traveling camera that reveals fantastical, secret, under-the-ocean tableaus...." Read more
"...It was a cross between scifi, fantasy, and 20,000 leagues under the sea...." Read more
"...images of the inner workings of sea animals and the interesting side of ocean life that is hidden from human eyes...." Read more
"...imagination, a wonderful journey of a day at the beach and the ocean's treasures." Read more
Customers find the book fun to read, with one mentioning they were able to enjoy it together with others, and another noting how it increased their happiness to exist.
"...However, Wiesner underlies all he draws with humor, joy, spunk. He has won the Caldecott Gold Medal three times, for [..." Read more
"...illustrations, which are large and colorful, and we were able to enjoy the book together." Read more
"changed my life. increased my happiness to exist. i enjoy reading this book to other adults; they seem to get into it too! even the ones who resist." Read more
"...Fun for the whole family." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the book's word count, with some praising it as a top-notch wordless book that helps build oral language skills, while others express disappointment that it lacks text.
"...There are no prose to the book so you can narrate the pictures as you like." Read more
"...a fairly complicated story line, but it is told in lovely pictures, not text. It is great for pre-readers, early readers, lazy readers...." Read more
"...But also there's no words, so older kids who can't read might like it. I saw this at a friend's house and bought one for my living room...." Read more
"This is a wordless book. So it can be used to get kids to write their own text. This is a nice stepping stone to writing their own stories...." Read more
Reviews with images

Wonderfully illustrated wordless book!
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2024I love this book by David Wiesner! The whole story is told in pictures & it's such a great tale. The artwork is phenomenal, really. Shipping was smooth & fast from this seller & item arrived in perfect condition.
- Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2024I've purchased and gifted this book over a dozen times. I usually gift it to toddlers but adults have told me how much they enjoy it as well. The book is based on the wonderful idea of a sort of magical, traveling camera that reveals fantastical, secret, under-the-ocean tableaus. The camera is found by a succession of lucky children spanning time and locale. The children enjoy the treasure of discovery then return the camera to the sea where it can be found and enjoyed by others. There are no prose to the book so you can narrate the pictures as you like.
- Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2006David Wiesner's fans will be tickled pink with his latest book. Flotsam takes for its setting the Jersey seaside and the author's memories of his trips to the beach as a young boy. (The back flap of the dust jacket has a color photo of Wiesner as a five year old looking perfectly suited to slip right into his book!) Painted quite appropriately in watercolors, and utilizing a horizontal format, with pages wider than they are tall, the book perfectly captures the reflection of light at the seaside while framing the spacious broad strech of blue waterline against the long strip of sandy beach. Opening with a long shot of a young boy digging at the tideline with his bucket we turn the page to find ourselves staring face-to-face with an enormous hermit crab! Looking again we realize the crab is not sitting on beach sand but the boy's upturned palm, while an enormous eye - the boy's eye seen through a magnifying glass - gazes down behind the upturned twitching two eyes of the crab. Then things jump back to regular size on the next page but only for a moment as Wiesner constantly shifts the size and format of each step of his silent story. Like the boy we are meant to look carefully and from every possible angle. The title marvelously conveys the narrative method as mysterious snapshots flit back and forth with a young boy's curiousity of what lies out beyond the waves. Mr. Wiesner achieves almost a perfect storyboard, deftly mixing and merging images of varying sizes with his now unequalled mastery of visual storytelling, the sum producing an utterly delightful experience. Large sea turtles, their backs bedecked with villages of shell grottos sail through the water with the same wonderful stillness as the magical pigs in Tuesday. The becharmed juxtaposition of imagination and reality is reinforced in the name of the old-fashioned box camera washed ashore: Melville. And like Melville's epic Moby Dick factual data coexists side by side with the wildest fancies. Here whales can appear as a single enormous eye - the theme of the book is looking and how we record impressions - or as small guppies swimming below gargantuan walking starfish the size of tropical islands. Scale and perspective are handled with Wiesner's virtuoso touch; there is never any sense of heaviness or display for its own sake. His colors have never been richer or more brilliantly managed - the rich hues of a scene with small aliens as underwater tourists is quite the equal of William Joyce's palette. Somehow even the ebb and flow of the waves comes across in this brilliantly achieved work.
Combining the child's eye and imagination of Sector 7 with the dizzying draughtmanship and narrative gamemanship of The Three Pigs, Flotsam finds Wiesner the most brilliant Children's Book illustrator currently active. Despite all the gushing about Van Allsburg in the official notes it's now clear that these days Wiesner is working on a more exalted level of artistry.
P.S. Do take off your dustjacket for a surprise!
- Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2008David Wiesner is the Stephen King of illustrated children's books: off-kilter, weird, and supernatural. However, Wiesner underlies all he draws with humor, joy, spunk. He has won the Caldecott Gold Medal three times, for
Tuesday,
The Three Pigs,
and "Flotsam."
This is what is written on the front book flap: "Flotsam: Something that floats. If it floats in the ocean, it may wash up on the beach, where someone may find it and be astonished, and share the discovery with someone else--as David Wiesner shares it with you." And that, my friends, pretty well summarizes "Flotsam" as far as story line goes. However, to appreciate Wiesner's storytelling talent through art, you must "read" the book.
First page after the end paper and before the title page is a distinctive picture of a boy beachcombing. The double title page shows findings from a beachcombing expedition. The next page begins the story with a close-up of a hermit crab in front of a huge eyeball belonging to the boy. He's looking, looking, and a huge wave sweeps him over. When it washes back out, there sits a camera with seaweed and tiny barnacles all over it. It's a Melville Underwater Camera.
He finds a roll of film in it and takes it to the one-hour photo shop on the beach. What he sees when the film is developed astonishes not only the boy but the viewer as well. It is a picture of phantasmogorical figures of the sea. But the most astonishing is the one of a girl holding a photograph of a boy holding a photograph of a girl holding a photo...He gets a magnifying glass and sees more figures and photos. He gets a microscope and sees more and more and more until it is just a boy in 19th century garb waving to the camera.
He takes a photo of himself holding the photograph he had developed and then tosses the camera back into the sea. At the end another little girl finds the camera...
Children LOVE the bizarre elements of the story. It tickles their fancy and stimulates their imagination. This is a must book for every child, kindergarten age and up, including mothers and fathers. I have my own copy, as well as Wiesner's other two Caldecott winners. They are a joy to "read."
- Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2023This is a wonderful book, with no words. It has a fairly complicated story line, but it is told in lovely pictures, not text. It is great for pre-readers, early readers, lazy readers. Spend time on each page, carefully looking at the illustrations. Have your child predict what is going to happen. Have your child tell you the story in their own words. Write down what they say and then read it back to them the next time you look at the book. So many "reading" skills to practice, without the frustration of decoding the text!
- Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2021This is a wordless book. So it can be used to get kids to write their own text. This is a nice stepping stone to writing their own stories. This book is full of imagination and wonder. Everyone in our family enjoyed it. It was a cross between scifi, fantasy, and 20,000 leagues under the sea. My son is particularly interested in aliens - so if yours is too check out the other books from this author titled Mr. Wuffles and June 29, 1999
Top reviews from other countries
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in India on September 15, 2018
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant
Loved it.
- M C F SimpsonReviewed in the United Kingdom on June 30, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic for inspiring primary writing!
Fabulous underwater scenes, an amazing imagination to inspire young writers. It’s accessible for all abilities and ages, a brilliant book.
- Vilimas NorkunasReviewed in Germany on October 24, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Great silent book
Great fantasy book encouring to live creative dreams or make up things
-
JulioReviewed in Spain on December 15, 2017
5.0 out of 5 stars Una preciosidad de libro con imágenes sin texto.
Las imágenes son delicadas, hechas a mano y la calidad del papel muy buena. Es una bonita historia, con elementos de fantasía, sin texto con el que los niños y niñas, o sus madres y madres, podrán relatar lo que le ocurre al protagonista a través de las imágenes por si mismos. No me extraña que su autor haya ganado varios premios.
-
FmeCocoReviewed in Italy on November 11, 2017
5.0 out of 5 stars Decisamente ben fatto e divertente
Libro muto, solo di immagini, per scoprire la storia nelle immagini, o meglio nella propria immaginazione stimolata dalle immagini. Immagini particolari, che danno spazio alla fantasia, e magari ogni volta che viene raccontata, la storia cambia un po', si arricchisce di particolari, oppure "lettori" diversi trovano storie diverse.. Un'esperienza decisamente interessante, da provare con diversi di questi libri e da condividere con nonni e bambini. Consigliato.