The Silver Boat, by Ann Adams, Illustrated by Max Elbo

            This story is about a little girl who decides to leave her glum and abusive home to go across the sea to a welcoming place. Along her journey, she is visited by a mysterious, ethereal woman whose blue light helps the little girl along the way. To get to the sea, the girl must face the dangers within the forest. However, the ethereal woman instructs the girl to always remember, “You must think about what you want rather than what you fear.” This saying helps the little girl through her adversity within the forest. Additionally, the blue light is able to grant the little girl wishes. At the beginning of her journey, the girl thinks she will not be as afraid if she has other children to share in her journey, so she wishes for a group of companions. With her new group of friends, they face adversity. Some of the adversity comes from the creatures in the forest and some come from each other. The group reconciles when they have to fight a dragon together. At the end of the book, the group reaches the sea. When the boat pulled by a large swan appears close to shore, the group has to figure out who should ride in it since there is only enough room for one child. Eventually, everyone remembers that they originate from the little girl. Then, the little girl gets into the boat after her friends re-join inside her from where they came. The book specified that she did not live “happily ever after” because that is not true to real life. Instead, she faced more challenges in life, but each challenge gave her more wisdom and made her stronger.

            This book is most appropriate for third grade through fifth grade. It is a transitional book for students to begin reading chapter books. There are not too many words on each page but there are more words than a picture storybook. Additionally, not all of the pages incorporate illustrations. Furthermore, this book would be fantastic for a student who deals with anxiety, has suffered trauma, or has a low self-esteem because the book teaches coping strategies and has the theme of self-empowerment. Since the story is fantastical, it allows the students to learn to cope through a story that is not too near to reality to be frightening or overwhelming for sensitive students. In an ELA lesson, this book would be a great example to use when students learn about story arcs. This book has an easily identified beginning, middle, end, conflict, climax, and resolution. Since this book is slightly longer than a picture storybook, it has a more complex plotline that scaffolds students’ reading comprehension towards chapter books. Students could complete a plotline “rise and fall” graphic organizer shaped like a mountain where the peak is the climax or a “cause and effect” graphic organizer to analyze the chain of events throughout the story. Students could also predict what they think will happen in the second book based upon the events in this book.