#273 of 1001 · April 30, 2021

This is a character study of quiet loneliness. This is a supernatural story of inexplicable connection across vast distance. This is Boat of Dreams, a wordless book by @rogerio_coelho_illustration. An old man dwells in a house by the ocean with his seagull companion. When a bottle washes up on shore with a blank piece of paper inside, the man sketches a wondrous ship, places his design in the bottle, and sends it back out to sea. Elsewhere, a boy and his cat live alone in a quiet city. The boy discovers an envelope left on his doorstep, opens it, and finds the old man’s drawing. Intrigued, he adds to the illustration, placing himself and his cat aboard the ship, and tapes the page to the headboard of his bed. The enigmatic encounter that follows may be magic, or a dream, or perhaps simply a metaphorical experience, but it holds powerful significance for the two characters who otherwise never meet. Coelho’s angular art establishes the pelagic setting of the old man’s house through sepia-toned full-bleed illustrations before shifting suddenly to tighter images in cool blues and grays, bound by wide margins. This stark difference in visual language suggests a gulf between the two worlds—but the nature of the divide is left to the reader’s imagination. #boat #dream #dreams #loneliness #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbook #beautifulbooks #beautifulbookcovers #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookillustrations #picturebookart #classicchildrensbooks #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks