Picture This: Boats for Papa

Boats for Papa by Jessixa Bagley 

“Buckley and his mama lived in a small wooden house by the sea. They didn’t have much, but they always had each other.”

Buckley the beaver likes to collect driftwood and build boats. He sends them out to sea with a note to his father, knowing that if they don’t come back to shore, they’ve reached Papa.

We are left to infer that Buckley’s father is gone for good (probably passed away, though ambiguous). Buckley himself discovers this when he forgets his note, runs back to the house to fetch some paper and inadvertently finds a desk full of boats he once sent out to sea. We see his look of dismay, but he sends the boat out to sea as usual anyway. Then the reader watches as his mother goes back out to the beach after bedtime to retrieve the boat. It’s absolutely lovely.

It may sound like a story about death and loss, and it is, but what strikes me even more than the absence of Buckley’s father is the presence of Buckley’s mother. She is there making Buckley dinner and lunch, appreciating his water-bound creations, celebrating his Buckley’s birthday themed cakes and dress up, walking with him on the beach, tucking him into bed at night. I look at this as a beautiful and tender ode to mothers.

The watercolor and ink illustrations are lovely. Bagley creates a watery, seaside feel with colors that seep and run into each other. She then creates precise, detailed scenes on top of those seascapes. I love looking at Buckley’s activities with his mother. Their birthday picnics include details like a pile of the removed, already blown out birthday candles, lying on a napkin. Every seascape includes objects washed ashore—seaweed and driftwood and shells—as well as occasional sea life. Bagley and his mother are an endearing mixture of weird, stout, and cute. Buckley develops as an artist over the course of the story. While he starts with just one piece of driftwood plus a mast stuck on top, he eventually sketches and designs complex ships that he lovingly builds and paints. Don’t be surprised to hear this announced as a Caldecott winner next year.