The little red steamer

With digitally colored pen and pencil art that's reminiscent of linocut prints, Maland (We Light Up the Sky with Music!) captures the rhythmic flow of both water and daily life as a beloved steamer serves a cluster of seemingly tropical islands. The cheery red vessel and its crew--the Captain and his daughter Lian, both portrayed with brown skin--take children to school and grown-ups to work, making it possible for their neighbors "to ask and to learn, to build and to mend, to help and to heal." When a terrible storm blows the craft into open waters in which waves loom like skyscrapers, the battered boat drifts far from home and into the harbor of a busy metropolis, where it seems destined for a junkyard. But locals come by and offer assistance just as the vessel and its crew once helped others--working "to build and mend, to ask and to learn, to help and to heal." Lian and a new friend now take the helm, affirming that care and kindness ripple outward, creating community wherever they land. Background characters are shown with various skin tones. Ages 4--8. Agent: Alan Lynch, Alan Lynch Artists. (Feb.)

Lian and her father, the Captain, have a rewarding yet quiet life ferrying people around the Islands in their beloved boat, until disaster strikes.None Maland's cartoon-style pen and pencil art, with digital color added, cheerfully conveys the Little Red Steamer's satisfaction at transporting passengers, both children and adults, to school and to work, where they "ask and learn…build and mend…help and heal." But everything changes when a sudden squall sweeps the little craft out to sea, with Lian and the Captain aboard. Maland's strong black lines work well in conveying the peril of the Little Red Steamer amid the swirling waves, and his text supports the tension with lines like "she bustled and blustered across a stormy sea." As days pass and the Captain and Lian collapse with exhaustion, the Little Red Steamer realizes that she must save them all. Eventually they find themselves being dangerously swept by the tide into a crowded harbor, but a tugboat comes to the rescue--and seems none too happy about it ("You're too broken to be here"). Now high and dry on land, the Little Red Steamer appears to be beyond repair, but Jim and Ava, another father-daughter pair, show up to help with the restoration. In a pleasant conclusion, it's the two daughters who continue the tradition of carrying passengers, now around the harbor of a big city. Lian and the Captain are brown-skinned; Jim and Ava are pale-skinned. A satisfying adventure for boat devotees.(Picture book. 3-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.