Loren Long | children's book gallery

Toy Boat

by Randall de Sève | illustrated by Loren Long

Toy Boat has received the 2007 Publishers Weekly Off the Cuff award for Favorite Picture Book of the Year. The award is selected by a poll of children’s book retailers around the United States, one of whom called it “a beautiful and timeless new classic.”

Toy Boat is also the winner of the 2008 Great Lakes Book Award for Children's Picture Book.

A little boy has a toy boat. He made it out of a can, a cork, a yellow pencil, and some white cloth. The boy and his boat are inseparable, until one day when the wind pushes the toy boat out into the wide lake. Alone now, the little boat must face fierce waves, a grumpy ferry, a sassy schooner, and a growling speed boat. How the little boat misses the boy! But if he is going to survive, he must figure a way to do it on his own.

Loren Long has a timeless and magical touch. As he did with The Little Engine That Could, he creates a world of toys and children that go right to the soul. Toy Boat will sail into young hearts and stay there.

Ellewoods (Ellie) takes a sniff at the Toy Boat model built by Loren's brother Lindy.

	See Loren’s original sketches and finished paintings for this book >
Read Loren‘s notes about Toy Boat >
	Listen to Loren talk with Cincinnati Public Radio‘s Barbara Gray about Toy Boat and Barnstormers (mp3) >

Reading level: Ages 4-8
Hardcover: 40 pages
Publisher: Philomel (September 20, 2007)
ISBN-10: 0399243747
ISBN-13: 978-0399243745
Dimensions: 9.8 x 9.8 x 0.5 inches

Please ask for this book at your favorite local bookseller, or if you wish, you can order it online:

book | sketches | notes | interview