Ship [Paperback]

David Macaulay (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

In Ship we join a group of underwater archaeologists as they search for a long-lost caravel in the reefs of the Caribbean Sea. A combination of drawings, maps, and diagrams details the ship's recovery, and as clues to the past are pieced together, a story emerges - of the triumphant birth of the ship Magdalena from Spain, and its tragic voyage to a far-away continent.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

With so much interest in the raising of the Titanic, young readers will certainly be fascinated with David Macaulay's ambitious Ship. Like the recent movie Titanic, Macaulay uses the present day as a portal to the past--first recounting a diving expedition that leads to the discovery of Magdalena, a fictitious 15th-century wooden ship embedded in a treacherous reef near the Bahamas. Overcoming obstacles from pirate treasure hunters to government bureaucracy, the excavation team manages to piece together the intriguing but ultimately tragic story behind the 400-year-old caravel. Finally, the team hits pay dirt when the ship owner's 1504 diary is miraculously discovered in an archive library in Spain's Seville. At this point the narrative switches into the past, allowing the reader to witness the building of the ship through the voice of the ship's owner--and experience the heart-wrenching escalation of the owner's hopes and dreams. This is what Macaulay does best--highlighting and interweaving the human story that fuels the creation of an object, while masterfully visualizing the event with detailed, historically accurate illustrations. Macaulay fans will appreciate the diverse artistic styles displayed throughout the book, from murky underwater images to highly detailed architectural drawings, sepia-toned journal entries to impressionistic watercolors. Simultaneously, the author eloquently portrays the many voices of this human drama, especially that of the ill-fated ship owner. (Ages 10 and older) --Gail Hudson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

In Ship , as in many of his earlier books, Macaulay tells more than one story and does so in more than one way. The book begins with a fictional archeological crew salvaging the remains of a caravel, a 500-year-old sailing ship, from the bottom of the ocean. The tale is related through Macaulay's vivid pencil drawings, through text accompanying the illustrations, and also through documents and letters in the artwork. Though almost no pictures or descriptions of actual caravels survive today, Macaulay shows how archeologists and historians have pieced together an idea of the likely look and construction of these ships. Then, halfway through the book, Macaulay begins another tale--the design, financing, contracting, construction and launch of that same fictional caravel in the year 1405. Subdued watercolors accompany the "diary" of the Spanish merchant who commissioned that ship. Though Macaulay barely portrays the actual voyage, he has nonetheless crafted an exciting story out of the details of marine archeology, historical sleuthing, and the ancient building and equipping of an ocean-going sailing ship. Though the text and book are brief, the depth of the coverage is surprising--Macaulay plays with the relationships between time and color, words and illustrations, and he varies visual perspectives to offer a rich reading experience. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Graphia (September 25, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395745187
• ISBN-13: 978-0395745182
• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 7.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,080,815 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Macaulay is an award-winning author and illustrator whose books have sold millions of copies in the United States alone, and his work has been translated into a dozen languages. Macaulay has garnered numerous awards including the Caldecott Medal and Honor Awards, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Christopher Award, an American Institute of Architects Medal, and the Washington Post-Children's Book Guild Nonfiction Award. In 2006, he was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, given "to encourage people of outstanding talent to pursue their own creative, intellectual, and professional inclinations." Superb design, magnificent illustrations, and clearly presented information distinguish all of his books. David Macaulay lives with his family in Vermont.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars History, for the kids., April 16, 2005

By 

Merinda (Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ship (Hardcover)

My sister's boyfriend picked this book up at a garage sale and happened to leave it lying around. I was drawn to the cover art and once I started flipping through the pages, I couldn't put it down. It's not exactly a literary page-turner, though the story is kind of interesting - consisting mostly of a diary that was discovered in the early 1990's that contained a man's account of his experiences building a ship in Seville, Spain in 1504. But the illustrations, especially in the second half of the book, are of an incredibly high caliber. I was highly impressed with Mr. Macaulay's abilities and look forward to collecting the rest of his books if they, too, include such interesting painted pages.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Like "Connections" only a book, May 30, 2008

By 

E. Karl - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ship (Hardcover)

It's hard to be enthusiastic enough about a book like this. I like the subjects (Archeology, Ship Building, historical research, fascinating stories) and the presentation style, but most of all I like how the author makes connections and inspires you to find more information about things that you suddenly feel as if you never appreciated enough. His other books are similar - "City", "Cathedral" etc. You also get the benefit of considerate and imaginative views taken from vantage points that are often difficult if not impossible to obtain in normal day to day life (or even imaginative flights of fancy)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars more than meets the eye, March 6, 2011

By 

M. Heiss (USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ship (Paperback)

I'm a David Macaulay fan - his "Castle" and "Cathedral" are beautiful works of art and instruction, and his "The Way Things Work" is a masterpiece that my little inventors plunge into again and again. But he is also a great visual storyteller, with "Black and White" and "Shortcut" being two of our favorites.

This book has two things going on. The first is an archaeological dig on the site of a shipwreck - very interesting description of how archaeologists do their work, and especially the complications of underwater work. This is first-rate. All the illustrations are done in three colors in this modern-days section - black, white, and blue. Midway through the book, a journal is discovered in the original Spanish shipyard, and the reader cruises into the day-by-day creation of a 16th century ship. (that part ties up so many loose ends, so neatly -- of course it never happens that way. Focus instead on the shipbuilding technology) These illustrations are full-color.

This is an excellent tie-in to our books on the Atlantic voyages of discovery - Columbus, Magellan and others. Extremely interesting and thought-provoking. Ah, what an illustrator can do!