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Cool Picture Books About Boats
Seafaring comes to life in lively children’s stories
Picture books about boats put the wind in the sails of a child’s imagination. Stories of cars and trucks often take readers no farther than the boundaries of a town. Books about boats open up worlds as their captains — young or old — steer their vessels into mysterious and unknown waters.
Here are three of the most seaworthy: the first, one of the bestselling picture books of all time; the second, one of School Library Journal’s Best Books of the Year; and the third, a story by a winner of Britain’s counterpart to the Caldecott award, the Kate Greenaway Medal.
‘Scuffy the Tugboat’
Written by Gertrude Crampton and illustrated by Tibor Gergely (Little Golden Books, 1946)
Scuffy the Tugboat was published soon after World War II ended and, though it doesn’t mention the war, has a theme that must have spoken poignantly to returning soldiers: the longing for home that arises when you are far from it.
Scuffy is a red toy tugboat who craves more action than floating in a bathtub overseen by a man in a…
