Flotsam

It was by David Wiesner and it had a Caldecott Medal stuck on the cover. I bought Flotsam without even looking through it, as a Christmas present for my eleven-year-old son.

"Mom, you have got to see this book!" My thirteen-year-old daughter insisted on Christmas morning. "It's weird!"

I took it to church because I thought a picture book without words would be a good way to keep little ones quiet during the meeting. Found it very distracting - my mind full of, "What the - ?" and "Whoa!" I turned the pages over and over, enjoying the story and the inventiveness of the images. On an east-coast beach a boy finds an antique "underwater" camera. The camera has a roll of film in it, and after waiting an hour at the photo shop, an amazing story in pictures unfolds.

Though not as exuberant as Wiesner's Tuesday, I found Flotsam filled with the delight of secret discovery. I wish I lived closer to the beach.