Float is extraordinary. Without words, the simple story unfolds frame by frame. A boy's delight in sailing his paper boat turns to hopeless disappointment, but not for long. Joy returns (wise parental intervention evokes a reader-smile) as sunlight bids gray clouds farewell, a perfect backdrop to paper-airplane flight. Watercolor illustrations, primarily yellow and gray, shape the telling, creating movement, contrast, shadow, momentum, expression, and perspective. Float is sophisticated, yet unencumbered. Each reread reveals additional understated details (including the title's font, subtly tactile and fluid), indicating great effort has gone into this author-illustrator's work of art. We'll keep our eye on this one for award recognition. A boy's small paper boat--and his large imagination--fill the pages of this wordless picture book, a modern-day classic from the creator of Pardon Me! that includes endpaper instructions for building a boat of your own.

A little boy takes a boat made of newspaper out for a rainy-day adventure. The boy and his boat dance in the downpour and play in the puddles, but when the boy sends his boat floating down a gutter stream, it quickly gets away from him.

So of course the little boy goes on the hunt for his beloved boat--and when the rain lets up, he finds himself on a new adventure altogether.

This seemingly simply story from Daniel Miyares is enriched with incredible depth and texture that transcend words.