THE VOYAGER’S STONE, by Robert Kraske

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Ages 9 to 11
A Richard Jackson Book | Orchard Books

School Library Journal:
A boy sets a bottle holding a letter and a special charm adrift in the Caribbean Sea, and readers follow its journey across oceans and around continents until it finally reaches Australia, where a girl finds it, writes a letter to the boy, and then composes her own message and sets the vessel adrift again. The bottle's travels are helped and hindered by natural elements, from waterspouts to tidal waves, and Kraske offers fascinating tidbits about these forces of nature. Vivid pen-and-ink drawings illustrate the text. Floca includes simple, clear, informative diagrams of such specimens as krill and jellyfish, as well as maps. These contrast with vivid, exciting scenes that cover most of a two-page spread, such as a battle between an octopus and a shark. Though the information offered is necessarily brief, the well-chosen facts are just enough to explain concepts and delight readers. The premise is similar to Holling C. Holling's Paddle-to-the-Sea (Houghton, 1980) and, like that classic, this title succeeds in providing an unusual and inventive introduction to nature and geography. The wonderful, panoramic complexity of life on Earth comes through. Steven Engelfried.

Booklist:
Although written as a fictional account of a message-carrying bottle, this book really explores oceanography--currents, animals, and the variety of life found at the margins of the world's oceans. While on a Caribbean vacation, a boy from Minnesota puts a message in a bottle. His note is eventually retrieved by a girl living on Australia's north coast. The text is particularly well detailed when it considers predation and the food chain, and the drawings by Brian Floca that record the bottle's journey are at their best when they picture animals. The book may appeal more to children already fascinated by the subject: it's a much more appealing approach than the usual stuffy overview of current charts and facts. Mary Harris Veeder.