Review by Booklist Review
Inside an old boathouse lies a rotting canoe, home to mice and raccoons. The scene shifts back in time to a young boy waiting anxiously for a delivery. A horse-drawn wagon finally appears and unloads a red canoe. This gentle, nostalgic story is told from the point of view of the canoe, describing long summer days on the lake as the boy explores. While children may be surprised that the canoe's perspective is represented, this technique serves to unify the text and demonstrate the passage of time. Illustrations show the boy and his dog growing older, venturing farther, until one day the boy, now a young man, puts on a uniform and leaves for war. The canoe hopes for his return, but it is left in the boathouse and eventually abandoned. Softly detailed artwork captures the canoe's heyday and its long wait amongst various forgotten pieces of family life. Many years later, a new boy appears. He helps repair the canoe and then eagerly puts it into the water. At long last, it is summer again.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Gilbert recounts a red canoe's life with its first owner, a light-skinned boy who grows, over many adventurous summers launching the vessel, into a young man in the years leading up to a faraway war. The young man cannot "roam and fish when others his age were... bravely laying down their lives," and so the canoe awaits his return. After years of neglect in a forgotten boathouse, where raccoon and mouse families make their homes, a dark-skinned boy discovers the red canoe and sets himself to fixing it like new, taking up the role of the craft's faithful companion. Meticulously cross-hatched illustrations in sepia tones evoke a sense of innocence befitting a story of childhood happiness lost and found again. Bucolic lake and country settings brim with fine details that further underline the book's themes of timelessness and ephemerality. Ages 6--10. (Mar.)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2--A red canoe recalls the many adventures it had with a boy with blond hair and large eyes, who grew up and went away, and only from the pictures will adults know that this boy soldier fought and likely died in the first World War. Still, the summer days they spent together sustain the old canoe, who is home to wildlife, and shelter for others, and ages in the old red boathouse until it is discovered anew and restored to the waters by another child, with brown skin and a determined look. The book lingers for pages over the first owner, and then the lost years, but devotes a mere page turn or two to the red canoe's next life. This is abrupt, yet it's enough of a signal, whether this is used in units on time, death, recycling, seasons, or loss. It gives readers hope that the story is not over, even if they are not there to witness it. Gilbert's art has the charm of an old and well-loved barn, with an affectionate patina covering each scene, and sunlight dappled across forest glades. VERDICT A reminiscence worth sharing, for leisurely read-alouds, and a book that already feels like a keepsake.--Kimberly Olson Fakih
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