“Boat of Dreams”

Rogerio Coelho is an internationally known illustrator of children’s books.  In 2015, he won Brazil’s Jabuti Award for the best children’s illustrations for his book “Boat of Dreams.”

Eighty pages in length, “Boat of Dreams” is a wordless children’s book that will appeal to a wide range of juvenile readers. The story probably asks more questions, at first read, then it will answer.  Since the story is told visually, the first step for the reader is just to look at all the intricate illustrations, which the author/illustrator has done using a limited palette of blues and sepia shading.

After this first look, the reader can return to the first page and begin to interpret the drawings and create a narrative.  Perhaps, even a third reading might be needed to draw some conclusions about the man and the boy.  Are they two different people or one individual?  Are they separated by only distance or also by time?  Are they dreaming of the future or of the past?

This wonderful story would be a great book for a child to be read with an adult.  As each explores the illustrations, they could create their version of the meaning of “Boat of Dreams”on their own voyage of imagination.