A Boy and a Bear in a Boat

May 7, 2012
The phrase “Keep Calm and Carry On” encapsulates the viewpoint and placid tone of this quietly comedic adventure in which an unnamed boy and bear traverse the open sea in a rowboat and form an unlikely friendship. For British author/illustrator Shelton, it’s all about the journey: neither the intended destination nor the reason for the trip is specified. The boy simply climbs into the bear’s boat, asks for a ride “Just over to the other side, please,” and off they go. Days later, they’re still at it, with nothing but sea and sky in sight. The essential tension comes from the relationship between the two as they face such challenges as storms, hunger, and a sea monster, and alternate between irritation with and affection for each other. Shelton’s grayscale illustrations appear throughout, along with a few well-chosen color paintings, such as scenes from an inexplicable comic book the boy reads: “It seemed to be just one episode of a longer story.... There was no way of knowing what had gone on before or what would happen after.” Readers won’t miss the parallel. Ages 8–12.

April 15, 2012
This ocean adventure reads fast and clever but remains what it says on the jacket. Without backstory, identities or context to moor the boy or the bear to the rest of the world, off floats the story on its own. At first, the sly abstruseness in Shelton's witty prose is intriguing, even exciting. A boy steps into a rowboat. The rower, a bear, asks "Where to?" The boy waves his hand "vaguely out across the water" and answers, "Just over to the other side, please." A mystery! But clearly there's another "side," a place "where he was going," even if its distance is farther than expected: "I thought you'd be able to see it [from here]." The diction is unflaggingly clean and clear, droll and mischievous ("A boringly gentle breeze thought about blowing, but decided in the end not to bother"). However, despite storms, sea-monster hazards and an ever-shifting bear/boy dynamic, this book never feels complete. There's no journey's end, nor disclosure of destination; hunger somehow becomes a conquerable philosophical challenge: "[H]is hunger had been there for so long that... [i]t was normal now and he didn't really notice it." Whatever the message--overcoming obstacles? staying at sea forever? overcoming the need for... food?--this is more allegory than any story form with closure. Diverting but unanchored, this is training wheels for Waiting for Godot. (Fable. 8-12)

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Starred review from May 15, 2012
Grades 3-5 *Starred Review* In this illustrated novel from England, a boy steps aboard a small rowboat equipped with a bear for a captain. The boy merely needs a ride to the other side of the sea, but due to a few unforeseeable anomalies, he soon fears they may be lost. Even a limited game of I Spy fails to break up the monotony. Exasperated by the bear's seemingly bumbling leadership, the boy accuses him of stranding them in the middle of nowhere. Pointing to an entirely blue map, the bear counters, We passed through the middle of nowhere about noon yesterday. So you see it's not so bad. When adventures with storms and a ravenous sea monster eventually ensue, the pair makes the best use of their meager suppliesa suitcase, a comic book, a ukulele, and a Very Last Sandwich. Just as the bear thinks he may have failed as captain, the boy steps in to reassure him of his skills. It's Shelton's spare, wry storytelling that makes this book set sail. The duo's give-and-take relationship, aptly depicted in the expressive black-and-white illustrations, becomes the real focus of this existential story. An open ending emphasizes the adage that life is a journey rather than a destination. Deceptively brilliant.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)