A River
by Marc Martin (Author)
There's a river outside my window. Where will it take me?
So begins the imaginary journey of a child inspired by the view outside her bedroom window: a vast river winding through a towering city. A small boat with a single white sail floats down the river and takes her from factories to farmlands, freeways to forests, out to the stormy and teeming depths of the ocean, and finally back to the comforts--and inspirations--of home. This lush, immersive book by award-winning picture book creator Marc Martin will delight readers of all ages by taking them on a transcendent and aspirational journey through an imaginative landscape.
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Publishers Weekly
In a quiet, contemplative outing, a child draws at her desk while looking out her bedroom window, which frames a view of her city:
Sometimes I imagine myself floating along the river, swept away in a silver boat toward the horizon.
Subsequent spreads trace the girl's journey in a sailboat; in a neat detail, the boat initially appears as part of a mobile hanging in the girl's room, superimposed over the distant river in a way that hints at the interplay between observation and imagination in the mind of an artist. Working in watercolor, gouache, and other media, Australian author-illustrator Martin follows the blue river through an industrial area with smoking factories into farmland, hilly countryside, and dense jungle, where wild animals watch the girl from the riverbank. After she reaches the ocean, a storm creates a shadowy maelstrom of objects remembered from her journey's splatters and sprays of paint make the pages look almost wet to the toucha followed by a return to her bedroom. It's a subtle study of how imagination allows children to safely explore the unknown without ever leaving home. Ages 3-5. (Mar.)
Copyright 2017 Publishers Weekly, Used with permission.
Review quotes
JUV051000 - Juvenile Fiction | Imagination & Play
JUV041020 - Juvenile Fiction | Transportation | Boats, Ships, & Underwater Craft
Rivers
Children and the environment
