Customer Reviews

The Wreck of the Zephyr

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Only once as a child have I read this book, but to this day I still remember it as one of the best. The illustrations are so life-like, and I just feel everything is done beautifully! A book every child should encounter.

I have grown up with a tattered copy of this book and never seem to tire of it! Chris Van Allsburg is the most talented artist and author of our time. I have every book he has written and anxiously await any and every book he publishes. The Wreck of the Zephyr, though, is by far my favorite. I find something new each time I crack the spine. I will cherish this, and all his works, forever.

I first fell in love with this book in elementary. And now I have purchased it for my son to treasure. This book takes you to a magical place not easily forgotten. It is worth buying for the illistrations alone. It has mystery, adventure, and it is beautifully written. My only complaint is that is too short.

Chris Van Allsburg is probably close to the top in his chosen profession...creating, writing and illustrating books for the young. As with all this author's work, and this book in particular, you either "get" Van Allsburg or you don't. Now that is not to say that people who don't "get" what the author is trying to do are bad people, stupid or insensitive; no, it only means that people perceive things differently. I personally dislike James Joyce...to the extreme! I have a great many friends who feel he is one of the greatest author's to ever write in the English Language. Goodness knows I have tried to like him over the years; I have tried and tried and tried. Alas, I fear to tell you that I just don't "get" him, i.e., Joyce. My mind is just not fashioned like that. Am I a bad person or an insensitive person because of my lack of enthusiasm over Joyce's work? Well, perhaps we had better not go there, huh!

Many, including his most enthusiastic fans, feel that this work, The Wreck of the Zephyr is not Van Allsburg's best work and feel it is "average" for this author at best. That may be so, but I personally feel that just "average" work from this author is far, far better that the best of the best delivered by quite a number of the leaders in this field; his contemporaries.

Now all that being said....

As this work is written in the first person, we find the author walking one day along the seashore. After leaving a small fishing village he climbs up into the hills and to his surprise finds a broken, rotting sailboat high upon a cliff. An old man is there and the author of course asks this old fellow how on earth a boat ended up in a place where it has no business being.

The old man tell the author his tale.

We are taken on a rather magical voyage taken by a young man years ago who wanted to be the greatest sailor the world has ever known. He wanted to be a better sailor than any man in the harbor.

This story is told in a very low-keyed voice and the art work is very quiet also. As you view the illustrations in this work it is interesting how the artist goes from light mellow to dark and stormy to light and mellow and finally to darkness and ending as he began, with light mellow. Rather amazing and if you "read" the book with out reading the text, the author is able to not only tell the story through the written word, but also his are and furthermore, his use of color and shade.

I very much enjoy reading this classic work to groups of young children. I enjoy watching the expressions on their faces as I read. I can always tell, just my observing them, that there are those that "get it," and there are those than don't. In any case, there is a very good underlying lesson to be learned by reading this work and I have yet to run into a kid that did not understand the message.

This is an excellent work and one that no Chris Van Allsburg should miss.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

Award-winning children's book author Chris van Allsburg brings us another original fantasy. In it a young boy, brilliant at sailing, scoffs at the advice of more experienced sailors and ventures out into a storm. When his boat capsizes, he finds himself on an island populated by people who sail in the sky with the use of special sails. Determined to master this new skill, he steals some sails and uses them to travel home. Forgetting that the sails do not work over land, he decides to show off by ringing his village's bell tower and, like a modern-day Icarus, plunges from the sky. The ending is a little more gentle than the Greek story, and instead of perishing he lives out his life limping from his injury, searching for new sails to restore his flight.

Van Allsburg, in his characteristically understated way, spins the story in a somber mood, allowing the fantastical story events and the timeless themes of pride, desire, and sorrow to emerge with quiet grandeur. This kind of fantasy may appeal best to serious-minded children, but even those who are used to more lighthearted books may benefit from this story of inflated pride which leads to tragedy.

I chose this wonderful author not only for his story, but equally importantly for his exquisite illustrations. I gave it to my grandson for his second birthday and he is enthralled with it, and frequently chooses it at bedtime for his Grandma Janet to read again and again. I love it as much as he does, and it is a timeless classic.

I think the story was really good. The illustrations were amazing. I like the way he didn't have an ending; that you could use your imagination. It was also good that it was short. Some people don't like that; but I do.

I think it was imaginative and very interesting. I thought it was amazing in the story that the boats were flying. The pictures were also very exciting. In the story, I thought the boy should have tried to fly his boat, then go back to sleep. Then in the morning, he could have flown his boat over the town and everyone would see him.

The art work alone is worth the price of admission. If you know of a child or adult who loves to sail, and feel free on the water, this is the book to get. Many times we have a tendency to go too far. The author shows us how seductive it is to test our limits inspite of our knowledge of the risks. But, this book is about dreams and possibilities more than anything else. The book has been around for awhile but it remains a valuable and lovely gift.

This book was my favorite as a child and I plan to share it with my Kindergarten class in the fall. Chris Van Allsburg has an incredible ability to bring the unimaginable alive. Allsburg tells a wonderful tale of a brashly self-confident young sailor who finds himself shipwrecked on a magical island. Ultimately, he conveys an important lesson about learning one's limitations. This book could be helpful character instruction. It would also fit excellently into a unit on the ocean and/or boats.