Exploring the seaside one day our narrator comes upon a sailboat sitting high on a clifftop and meets and old man seated nearby. How did the sailboat come to rest in this precarious place asks the boy and the old man tells a tale.
Seems there once was a young boy who loved to sail and thought himself exceptionally talented. So talented that one day despite warnings to stay ashore, the boy decided to sail out during a storm. Sailing out of the harbor the boy is knocked unconscious by a large boom. When he awakes, he and his boat are washed ashore on a strange island. The boy goes to seek help and as he searches he comes upon his boat, the Zephyr, being towed away by two boats. Nothing unusual about two boats but these two boats are floating through air not water.
The boy becomes determined to learn to sail through the air and stubbornly refuses to allow himself to be taken back home to safety. Can a boy sail through the air? What does life have in store?
With his trademark dreamy sense of mystery Chris Van Allsburg invites us into a world of adventure, imagination and the land of all things mystical.
978-0544050051 32 pages Ages 5-9
Recommended by: Barb, abookandahug.com
32 pages Ages 5-10 978-0544050051
