The Goodbye Boat - Hardcover

Joslin, Mary

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 080285186X ISBN 13: 9780802851864

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1999

Synopsis

Saying goodbye to someone you love is always hard. Saying goodbye when someone you love dies is perhaps the hardest thing of all.

Joslin's simple, thoughtful text and Little's evocative illustrations explore the pain and grief of saying goodbye and open the door to discussion for readers of any age. The Goodbye Boat provides a message of hope that sadness will ease and comforts with the reassurance that death is not the end.

About this title

About the Author

Mary Joslin is married and has 3 grown up children. She began writing when her own children were still young and has since written books that have been published throughout the world. For Lion these include Our Father, The Tale of the Heaven Tree, Do the Angels Watch Close By?, The Merchant Enticed by the Pearl of Great Price and The Story of the Cross. She likes kayaking, canoeing and gardening. CLAIRE ST LOUIS LITTLE studied at Falmouth College of Art. She is currently living and working in Oxford.

From Publishers Weekly

With minimal text and artwork that brims with symbolism, this picture book explores the difficult subject matter of the death of a loved one and a family's ensuing grief. Joslin and St. Louis Little introduce a young family enjoying a beach outing with an elderly woman. Before long, the woman and two children see a large ship approach and the woman apparently gets on board, sailing out of sight leaving "sad friends... weeping" on the shore. Later (several seasons have passed) we see her standing on the ship's deck "sailing somewhere new." While the spare text is evocative and thought-provoking, coupled with the sequence of paintings here, its brevity will likely prove confusing for young readers. The elderly woman waves goodbye on one page, then on the next page she's back, petting the dog. The season also turns from sunny summer to chilly fall on the same spread. Joslin's overarching message, that the pain of grief eventually subsides and that there is a positive afterlife experience, is a comforting one; unfortunately, it's poorly executed. Although her characters have limbs that sometimes appear rubbery and out of proportion, the artist achieves an appropriately sentimental and sometimes serene mood in her oil paintings. Ages 2-up.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 080285186X
• ISBN 13: 9780802851864
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 28
• Illustrator: Little Claire St. Louis