Sailaway Home

This charming book is about a little pig's adventure on his toy sailboat which transports him to the high seas, where a big storm is brewing. He must take charge and safely find his way back home, where a welcome hug awaits him.

The great Bruce Degen, author of one of my alltime favorite kids' books, "Jamberry," evokes similar feelings of adventure and safety in this winning book about a pig's fancies. While not quite as masterful as "Jamberry," the book has many of the same elements, including poetic imagery over literal sense, friendly cooperative animals, quaint scenery, and a reliance on delicious images of food! The book starts fast. While he watches his father patiently fishing, our young pig immediately begins his first fantasy. He guides a small sailboat "over the foam" with tubular waves crashing close to him. THe storm worsens, and we see the frantic pig "Bow with the gale away, Nail with a pail away. Hitch to a whale, and then sailaway home." (In this case, apparently back to his father calmly fishing at the water's edge.) It's clearly a fantasy, but one that's easy to stay with for awhile. Next, he at home riding a playhorse: "Rideaway, rideaway, WHere will you rome? The little pig encounters a cat and a parrot uncovering some treasure, andhe wrests it way using a very blunt-ended sword. "Jamberry" is a more gentle book, although no animals are even scratched in Sailaway's 4 fantasy sequences. In the next-to-last mini-story, Piggy has another Walter Mitty-like escapade, transferring his toy plane play into another adventure. This time he pilots an open-cockpit plane, compelte with goggles, scarf, and tight leather helmet. In this fantasy, we get more of the "Jamberry" flavor, bright, inviting colors, the pig sluding down a rainbow, and poetic prose" "Cloud beds to lie away. Rainbow cream pie away, Cut me a slice and then... Flyaway home. After his last of the day's adventures (this one has him riding a blue butterfly while frogs do backflips in a marshy pond!), he runs to his tree house--"happy alone"-- but reflects that one can share your fantasies with others, "...if you runaway home. The book has exciting fantasy-driven adventure, mixed with a mostly soft tone (I'n still not so sure about him withdrawing his sword), and may reassure kids that their fantasies are under their control; it's possible and even desireable to paradoxically "runaway home," where mommy and daddy pig (or their human equivalents) wait with open arms to hear about your exciting day! It's perhaps unfair to compare every Degen book with his widely acclaimed "Jamberry," but he set a kind of standard with that book. IF you haven;t read it, I strongly recommend it. Once you go ga-ga for that book, you'll want to pick up others, and "Sailaway Home" follows in many of the Jamberry's giant steps. Personally, I'd look over any of Degen's solo works or collaborations, and I frequently search for them at the library.

While sailing in a boat on a pond, little pig goes on imaginary journeys that involve sailing the high seas, meeting pirates, and journeying to the clouds. The delightful rhymes and the humorous yet whimsical pictures are sure to delight young children.