Independent Reading Level: Grades 3-4

Awards: None Found

Like many Chris Van Allsburg books- I’m not sure what I read.

Intentionally dreamy and surreal this book takes you on a ship through the sky that crashes back to shore. Its more like an art book that is narrated than it is a narration that is illustrated. ( )

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Contains Guidance On:

Book Summary
Special Features
Find Fritz
Summary of Teaching Ideas
Guiding Questions for a Wreck of the Zephyr Read-Aloud
Strengthening our Descriptions for the Setting by Adding Details About the Weather
Decide for Yourself: Dealing with Ambiguity in Books We Read
Just For Fun

• New York Times Best Illustrated
Children's Book of the Year
• ALA Notable Book for Children
• Booklist Editors' Choice
• IRA Teachers' Choice
"The full-color pastel drawings are the
work of a master: stunning, luminescent,
and conveying a sense of the mystical and
magical." — Publishers Weekly

At the edge of a cliff lies the wreck of a small sailboat. How did it get there? "Waves carried it up in a storm," says an old sailor. But is it possible that waves could ever get that high?

There is another story -- the story of a boy and his obsessive desire to be the greatest sailor, the story of a storm that carried the boy and his boat to a place where boats glide like gulls high above the water and not upon it.

Chris Van Allsburg tells that story of the boy and his boat, the Zephyr, in words and haunting, full-color pastel paintings. His sailboats sail the night sky with the stars in pictures so vivid that the reader can almost hear the wind in the sails. Here is a work of unusual artistry that will enchant readers of all ages for many years to come.

In my opinion, The Wreck of Zephyr, is a good book. First, the point of view is told by the person that "flew too close to the sun" in the book and is telling a boy who questioned the crashed boat on land so far from the water. You end up getting to see both sides of the "greatest sailor," seeing the reality of the old man. Also, the illustrations enhance the surreal and amazing idea that the old man once sailed his boat in the sky and crashed it so far inland. The big idea of the story is to be careful of your ambition and pride the outcome might not be what you want. ( )