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Flotsam Research Paper

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As a child, some of my favorite books were fully-illustrated picture books with no words to interfere in determining the meaning. One of the most famous illustrators of wordless picture books is Caldecott-winning author/illustrator David Wiesner; it was he who illustrated my favorite, Flotsam. Flotsam begins with a young boy going to the beach to find flotsam, objects washed up on the beach, carried by the ocean. It is there he finds a barnacle-encrusted, aged waterproof camera. There is a single negative on the film, which he takes to be developed. Upon receipt of the developed photo, it appears to be another child, who looks completely different from him, holding a photo. In the photo is another child, who looks different from the first child, holding another photo. The boy places the photo under a microscope, finding more and more different children from all over the world holding photos, going steadily back in time. It eventually gets to about seventy times magnification, and the first photo comes into view: a dated sepia-toned photo of a child waving and smiling. The elated boy hurries to take a picture of himself holding the photo so he can send the camera back into the ocean to the next child. …show more content…

As a child, I was very proud of being able to think about a picture enough to understand what was going on without words. I “read” Flotsam through the lens of another child- I dreamed of finding a camera on the beach, too. I also saw what I interpreted to be a special meaning in the book: my middle name is Meredith, of which I was told meant “guardian of the sea”, and the book had to do with a child’s finding an important object in the ocean? To my six-year-old self, it had to mean maybe the ocean would choose me for something important, too, even if it was only important to

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