Lightship

LIGHTSHIP
By Brian Floca
Atheneum, 2007. 38 pp. Juvenile nonfiction.

History is made not only easy but fascinating in Brian Floca's new picture book about the stationary ships that once guided ships into the world's harbors. Equipped with foghorns, bright lights, a captain and crew, lightships sailed only long enough to anchor in hazardous areas of the harbor, to warn ships away. Floca's pictures are bright and true--the sea is most often green-yellow and gray rather than blue, the lightship Ambrose is a child-attractive bright red, and the gulls are the color gulls should be. One of the delightful things about this picture book is Floca's command of perspective. The crew is shown working against and with the tilt of the ship as it rocks in the waves, and he shows us the ship from the crow's nest down, and a cat's eye view of the inner workings as seen from the deck. A very large ship which almost runs the Ambrose down is slyly named the Ardizzone, possibly as a tip of the hat to Edward Ardizzone
and his classic Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain books. Lightship is impressive but readily accessible to ship lovers of all ages.