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Summary
Summary
A boy and a bear go to sea, equipped with a suitcase, a comic book, and a ukulele. The bear assures the boy that they are traveling a short distance and it really shouldn't take very long. But then they encounter "unforeseeable anomalies": turbulent stormy seas! a terrifying sea monster! and the rank remains of The Very Last Sandwich. The odds are pitted against the boy and the bear and their boat.
Will the Harriet , their trusted vessel, withstand the violent lashings of the salty waves? And will anyone ever answer their message in a bottle?
Author Notes
Born and raised in Leicester, DAVE SHELTON now lives in Cambridge. He likes comics, cricket, crosswords, and talking to cartoonists about pens. His comic strip Good Dog, Bad Dog appeared in The Guardian and in The DFC on the Fickling list in the U.K.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
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. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
A boy and a bear find themselves on a voyage on the high seas. At times they test each other's patience but become close friends as together they surmount various obstacles. While their destination is unclear, the mysterious quality of their adventure only adds to the richness of their burgeoning friendship. Illustrations range from small vignettes to full-page art. (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
*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 supplies a 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.--Leeper, Angela Copyright 2010 Booklist
Guardian Review
To an adult reader, the title A Boy and a Bear in a Boat instantly brings to mind Yann Martel's Life of Pi, with its boy in a boat with a tiger, and Moacyr Scliar's Max and the Cats, with a Jewish refugee in a boat with a jaguar. (What is it with a single male cast adrift with a wild animal?) One of the big differences in Dave Shelton's illustrated children's novel, though, is that it's the animal that does the rowing. The lovingly designed jacket and hardback cover, with its slightly mottled paper and "worn" spine, evokes memories of Mervyn Peake's Letters from a Lost Uncle or Reif Larsen's more recent The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet. But despite the fact that Shelton is currently best known as a comic book illustrator, A Boy and a Bear is less highly illustrated than either of these. We are, however, embarking on a journey with literary precedence. This is a voyage requiring two maps, both of which are made up of grids of clear blue sea (except for a rock and a coffee ring). The "complimentary on-board entertainment" is I-Spy, limited to what's outside the boat (which is usually "something beginning with s"). As for the food, that's soon reduced to The Last Sandwich (which is slightly glowing, but comes in very handy). When the boy goes so far as to suggest that they are lost in the middle of nowhere, the captain - the bear in his captain's hat - becomes very indignant. "You see, we're here . . . And the middle of nowhere is here . . . We passed through it at about noon yesterday." This is a bear who doesn't like to make plans. ("No point having a plan when you're a sea captain . . . You have to deal with each situation as it arises.") These situations include a sea monster, thick mist and a Mary Celeste-type ship. The bear seems to surprise even himself when he suddenly has a bright idea. He may drink tea from a cup with a saucer, but he's a real bear who can use his claws like a pair of pliers, who licks his wounds and growls. He can smell danger - or is it marmalade? - and he can certainly stare. They do a lot of staring at each other, the boy and the bear in a boat. But what of the boy? He's a boy. He has the occasional bright idea, too. He gets irritable when hungry and wants to name the rock after himself "unless it's horrible . . . Then we can name it after you." It is, however, the bear's ever-practical approach - if sometimes impractical in execution - that usually keeps their spirits, if not their vessel, afloat. "The sea's over there if you'd prefer it," he says on one occasion. "It's roomier, but it's not so dry." In the end, though, their roles change and the boy must take the metaphorical helm. I suspect some readers of this review may be wondering where, exactly, the bear and boy in a boat are heading, and whether they get there. Well, keep wondering. I ain't going to tell you. As for any niggles? Just one. The illustrations of the bear. Nothing can beat the image of the bear Shelton paints with his words. That's the picture I shall take away with me from this very special book. Philip Ardagh's Eddie Dickens Trilogy is published by Faber. To order A Boy and a Bear in a Boat for pounds 8.79 with free UK p&p call Guardian book service on 0330 333 6846. - Philip Ardagh To an adult reader, the title A Boy and a Bear in a Boat instantly brings to mind Yann Martel's Life of Pi, with its boy in a boat with a tiger, and Moacyr Scliar's Max and the Cats, with a Jewish refugee in a boat with a jaguar. (What is it with a single male cast adrift with a wild animal?) One of the big differences in Dave Shelton's illustrated children's novel, though, is that it's the animal that does the rowing. What of the boy? He's a boy. He has the occasional bright idea, too. He gets irritable when hungry and wants to name the rock after himself "unless it's horrible . . . Then we can name it after you." It is, however, the bear's ever-practical approach - if sometimes impractical in execution - that usually keeps their spirits, if not their vessel, afloat. "The sea's over there if you'd prefer it," he says on one occasion. "It's roomier, but it's not so dry." In the end, though, their roles change and the boy must take the metaphorical helm. - Philip Ardagh.
Kirkus Review
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)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.