Later, you can focus on single illustrations or sequences of images as the starting point for other activities.

I would recommend this book for just about any age group. The purpose for using it will vary, but it fosters our creative side, whether you are 5 or 15. Older students could use it for a writing activity in which they have to create words to go with each image. Divide the class into small groups. Give each a selection of three items, plus access to as many clothes pegs as they need. What are these creatures called? What are their habitats and life cycles? Ask children to draw and write about them, creating entries for an encyclopedia about newly discovered underwater life.This book is very thought-provoking. The illustrations are beautiful and the story is easy to follow. This is one of my favorites this year. Using a camera with roll film, photograph close-up details of well-known landmarks in your neighbourhood, or views seen from an unusual angle. The book is completely devoid of any dialogue - which is its great advantage: although a few English words on its cards they are not essential to understanding and enjoying the story. This allows for Flotsam to be enjoyed by all as it is not bound by any language, like classical music. Create your own incredible pictures that show images that might have been taken by the underwater camera.

Try a sketching trip to the aquarium, or twin your class with a school overseas, exchanging pictures and stories and making new connections. A bright, science-minded boy goes to the beach equipped to collect and examine flotsam-anything floating that has been washed ashore. Bottles, lost toys, small objects of every description are among his usual finds. But there's no way he could have prepared for one particular discovery: a barnacle-encrusted underwater camera, with its own secrets to share . . . and to keep. Text Rationale: The illustrations are breathtaking and vivid. The illustrations are done through many different perspectives, making turn paging that much more exciting. Each image is both realistic and full of fantasy. It allows the reader to use their imagination and creativity to piece together the story. David Wiesner’s illustrations are once again beautiful as he draws each character in a realistic way, especially of the images of the fishes doing human activities under the sea. The image that probably stood out the most was the image of the family of squids sitting around in their living room as the living room is set up like an underwater version of a living room as there are fish lamps all over the room. David Wiesner’s illustrations take control of telling this story, as there are no words to tell the story, just the images. David Wiesner’s story of a young boy discovering an underwater world is interesting and creative at the same time as the reader gets to see the human world from a fish’s perspective, as seashells take over as houses and turtles are used as transportations. Flotsam is a short and beautiful picture book, bound to delight both children and adults alike. It is a great book for children (of all ages) to read on their own and to read together with their older companions.This book is another winner, all about a child on a beach day with his parents. Other children may scream and run into the waves, but this boy has his microscope with him as he inspects the various forms of life in sand and water. Then he finds a curious looking camera, old but strange. Inside is a roll of film, so he runs to the one-hour photo place down the street and has it developed. When he eagerly gets the finished prints, he is astonished at what he finds. The camera has captured life under the waves as never seen before. Extend this into a dramatic scenario where a child taunts the waves. Ask your class to explore this via body movements. Then give the children Post-it notes and ask them to supply answers to the questions generated by others.They should be as imaginative as possible. Again, use the images (and messages, if there are any) to generate ideas about who these people could have been. How about visiting your nearest beach to identify and observe the wildlife? Or, you could conduct a survey of rubbish washed up by the tide, researching topics such as flotsam and beach combing.

Collecting shells on the beach, a boy is caught by a wave. When it recedes, he finds an old-fashioned camera containing seemingly impossible scenes of underwater life. Identify the geographical features of beaches and coastlines. Can you create a report about some of them? Are the photos what the children expected? Can they identify the places pictured? What might people see in the usual, the everyday, if they stopped and looked more closely? Flotsam" by David Wiesner is a wordless picture book. The story takes place at the shore. It is mostly told through the perspective of the camera after a young boy finds the vintage camera on the beach. He develops the film and it tells an adventurous and imaginative story of all the places the camera has been. Look at the items of flotsam shown on the inside cover. Could you choose one and write your own story about it?

Teaching Ideas and Resources:

Working in an open space, put large sheets of paper on the floor, each with a picture on it. Children should move around the room, looking at the pictures and generating interesting questions. Flotsam is a great example of a wordless picture book that creates engagement through its detailed sequence of images, rather than its text and, as such, requires a high level of inference. The author and illustrator, David Wiesner, is famous for creating other wordless texts, such as Tuesday and Free Fall. Flotsam won the Caldecott Medal in 2007 as well as being recognised by several other awards, and was chosen as the New York Times best illustrated children’s book that year. At heart it is a humorous fantasy story that also looks closely at the cyclical nature of life, as well as the ultimate power of nature. Links and themes: Pair them, asking them to mirror each other’s movements, then progress to a ‘conversation’, where one child makes a movement answered by a different movement from their partner. P.S. If you love this story and want to watch something similar, try out this incredible 8-minute wordless short by Peter Lewis, which has the same amazing but eerie feel as this book: THE CAMERA http://vimeo.com/32655795