Lightship by Brian Floca

One of my many favorite children's books is "Lightship" by Brian Floca.  The simple, easy-going text is nice but the illustration really make the book special.  Brian Floca captures the typical days of a lightship crew (and their cat) in his drawings.  What you might think would uneventful and boring is actually quite exciting and sometimes even dangerous.  We see the crew as they deal with larger ships that come too close and how difficult it is to walk around on a ship.  We can almost smell the sea air and hear the lapping of the waves. 

I was impressed that Floca was able to take a subject that would seem uninteresting to children and make a engaging children's book out of it.  Even as an adult, I found the illustrations and simple text to be quite interesting.  I had never heard of a lightship before reading this book!  But maybe that is one of the things a good book should do...introduce you to new concepts, places and people in exciting ways.  
Here is a You Tube book trailer (yes, there is such a thing, isn't that cool!?) of Lightship.  And as always, be sure to either pause or mute the playlist off to the right so that you can hear the you tube clip clearly.

What a great book!  I really hope you check it out the next time you are at the library or bookstore.  (Okay, time to stop. I'm sounding too much like those kids at the end of Reading Rainbow).
Check out the website below to learn more about Brian Floca and his books.
http://www.brianfloca.com/index.html