Float

Float
illustrated by Daniel Miyares
published by Simon & Schuster (2015)
Roar Score: 4/5

A boy. A boat. A rainy day. An adventure.

Wordless picture books are wondrous things. Indeed, any fan of David Wiesner, Aaron Becker, or Jerry Pinkney’s The Lion and the Mouse knows just how powerful they can be.

Float is a story about creativity, told on a few different levels. It begins with a boy making a paper boat on a rainy day. Puddles in the street provide the perfect place to sail, and all is right with the world.

The water, though, seems to have a mind of its own, and it starts to carry the boat away. And then it becomes a race against the current as the boy tries to catch up to his boat.

The boy and his boat are eventually reunited, but it’s become too soggy to sail. All is not lost, though, since this boy happens to have a crafty and creative dad at home who comes to the rescue.

I love that it’s the dad who gives the comforting hug, dries and combs the boy’s hair, make a mug of hot cocoa, and helps the boy find a solution to his problem. Too often, this kind of “domestic work” seems to fall under the mother’s domain.

It’s refreshing to see a father assume these basic parenting tasks….and not make a big deal about it.

My kids have become big fans of wordless picture books since it allows them to flex their creative storytelling muscles with a bit of guidance/structure (something that’s a bit reassuring at bedtime), and Float is a fantastic addition to the genre.

Recommended.