The Wreck of the Zephyr written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg

Chris Van Allsburg is one of those writer/illustrators that you could pick out from a line up. From the illustrations alone I feel confident that I could name his books. What I find so interesting about that though, is that the illustrations in his different books can be different in many ways. Color is used in The Wreck of the Zephyr but sepia rules the illustrations in The Witch's Broom. Other books are different as well. However, his stye is distinctive. Like his other books, Zephyr is formatted so that each illustration is framed and text is on the left page.

In Wreck of the Zephyr, a man encounters a wrecked sailboat far from land. Another man tells him the story of a boy who thought himself the best sailor. He learns to sail his boat through the sky. But, he is so intent on showing others his ability that he foolishly tries to sail over land. As a result, his sailboat crashes. I think the storyteller was the young boy. Never is it stated in the text, but I think he remained near the boat to remind himself of his foolishness. Van Allsburg effectively foreshadowed the boy's mistake when the sailor who taught the boy to sail through the air sang a folksong about the dangers of sailing over land. At that point, I realized how it was the boy would wreck his sailboat.

The illustrations of The Wreck of the Zephyr were beautiful and the text was well written allowing me to infer and draw conclusions along the way.