Poetry - General & Miscellaneous, American Poetry, Poetry - General & Miscellaneous

Down to the Sea in Ships

Name: Down to the Sea in Ships
Author: Philemon Sturges
ISBN: 9780399234644

by Philemon Sturges, Giles Laroche

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Overview

Written like sea chanties perfect for reading aloud with breathtaking, intricately-cut paper illustrations, these pieces capture all the adventure of sea travel.

Poems describe a variety of watercraft, from birch bark canoes to cruise ships, and reveal their impact on the world.

Synopsis

With wonder and humor, Sturges and Laroche celebrate the beauty of theamazing vessels that have sailed through time, down to the sea, including a canoe, Viking drakar, whaling boat, steamboats, schooners, cruise ship, sailboats and more.

Written like sea chanties perfect for reading aloud with breathtaking, intricately-cut paper illustrations, these pieces capture all the adventure of sea travel.

Evokes a feeling of awe. (Booklist review for Sacred Places)

Publishers Weekly

The creators of Bridges Are to Cross examine a multitude of water vessels in Down to the Sea in Ships by Philemon Sturges, illus. by Giles Laroche, from the simplicity of "A Birch Bark Canoe" to the impressive "Viking Drakar" and even Magellan's fleet. While Sturges's rhymes ape the lapping of the sea, Laroche's collages make a whale hunt look almost three-dimensional, and a cutaway view of a cruise ship could well make readers eager to board a luxury liner. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

About the Author, Philemon Sturges

Philemon Sturges, an architect, is the author of Sacred Places, illustrated by Giles Laroche. He lives in Princeton, Massachusetts.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly

School Library Journal

Gr 3-9-A seamless collection of finely honed but telling histories of important ships in fully realized poems. The organization is masterful: the first selection invites readers to "Put a thing in a pail filled with water,/- If lighter, the thing will bob and float/And so you have the beginning of a boat." The poetic language, whether about a birch canoe, the Vikings' voyage, Magellan's lost ships and crew, or the tale of the New England cod schooners, takes on the vessel's life and rhythm on the water. Examples of assonance, consonance, iambic pentameter, and rich imagery fill each page. Most of the poems rhyme; a few offer internal and slant rhymes. All of them are elegant and offer children a range of emotions from a humorous cruise ship to the poignancy of the "tall schooners set afloat/One lonely man each to a tiny boat." Whether the water illustrated is nearly black and tipped with white caps, aquamarine, sapphire, or royal blue, the art explores the variety of sea and sky. Laroche's boats, made of cut paper and paint, appear to lift from the waves and float in their pictorial waters. This author and illustrator work wonders together. A school and public library must-have.-Teresa Pfeifer, Alfred Zanetti Montessori Magnet School, Springfield, MA Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Paying tribute to boats and ships-and all who have taken them out onto wide blue waters-Sturges pairs a series of lyric verses to Laroche's carefully detailed, painted-paper collages. From a frail looking birch canoe to an immense modern cruise ship (the latter seen in engrossing cutaway), from a Viking Drakar rowed by a bearded, singing crew to the Savannah, first steam-powered ship to cross the Atlantic and return, the vessels present an arresting array of forms and sizes. But this is more than a simple sail-and-steam gallery; Sturges also commemorates whalers and cod fishermen (and the cod themselves), Magellan, who "sailed on to misfortune and fame," busy Puget Sound, blind boatbuilder John Herreshoff and the profound rewards of drifting silently: "Be still. / Ignore the distant sounds of Man and thunder. / Look deep into the sea. / Be filled with wonder." A poetic companion for the likes of Patrick O'Brien's The Great Ships (2001). (Poetry. 8-12)