Author: David Wiesner
Title: Flotsam
Illustrator: David Wiesner
Publisher: Clarion Books
Year: 2006
Genre: Caldecott book
Format: Hardcover
Reading level: Early
Interest level: Early elementary
Topics: Underwater world, sea creatures, kids, and pictures
Summary: Flotsam is about a little boy who finds a crab in the sand while he is enjoying a day at the beach with his family. While the little boy is playing in the sand a wave knocks him over and leaves a camera behind in the sand. It is an underwater camera. The boy decides to develop the pictures in the underwater camera and is intrigued with all of the sea creature pictures he finds. He also sees pictures from long ago of little kids just like him who found this same underwater camera. He decides to take a picture of himself and then throws the camera back in the sea for another little kid to find. The author used a lot of cool colors- blues and greens to create an underwater feeling for the reader.
Extension Activity: Have children bring pictures of themselves into class with their parents permission. Then the class would create underwater themed picture frames for their photos. The kids can bring their new picture frames with a picture of themselves home to their family to share or the teacher could hang everyone's picture up in a spot in the classroom for everyone to view.
