Wiesner was born and raised in Bridgewater Township, New Jersey, and attended Bridgewater-Raritan High School. He graduated from Rhode Island School of Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in illustration. [3] Wiesner currently resides outside of Philadelphia with his family.

Each question can be answered many times by different children. Share the questions and answers, discussing each picture as you go. Flotsam is a children's wordless picture book written and illustrated by David Wiesner. Published by Clarion/Houghton Mifflin in 2006, it was the 2007 winner of the Caldecott Medal; [1] the third win for David Wiesner. The book contains illustrations of underwater life with no text to accompany them. The story begins with a curious boy who is visiting the beach. He has an interest in beach life and brings a multitude of exploration tools with him. As he’s exploring, a wave comes, and brings with it a strange looking camera. It resembles an underwater camera. He takes out the film and decides to have the film developed at the one hour photo department. The pictures he gets from the camera are amazing and show pictures of underwater sea life, including some strange mechanical fish. Within the photos he notices something strange and uses his microscope to figure it out. What he sees is surprising. Follow along in the story to see what he decides to do with it. Flotsam" by David Wiesner is a wordless picture book. The story takes place at the shore. It is mostly told through the perspective of the camera after a young boy finds the vintage camera on the beach. He develops the film and it tells an adventurous and imaginative story of all the places the camera has been. Are the photos what the children expected? Can they identify the places pictured? What might people see in the usual, the everyday, if they stopped and looked more closely?This book is gorgeous, with amazing illustrations and a wonderful plot. It has the added bonus of being a bit eerie. It reminded me of Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg in a way. Sometimes I think wordless children's books are extra amazing. Highly recommended. On each occasion, ensure the child is holding the previous photograph, as the boy does in the book, to create a series of pictures recording the timeline of children involved in the project. Encourage speculation about what the pictures might show, then get the film developed (maybe a local shop will allow your class to see the process?). This book is another winner, all about a child on a beach day with his parents. Other children may scream and run into the waves, but this boy has his microscope with him as he inspects the various forms of life in sand and water. Then he finds a curious looking camera, old but strange. Inside is a roll of film, so he runs to the one-hour photo place down the street and has it developed. When he eagerly gets the finished prints, he is astonished at what he finds. The camera has captured life under the waves as never seen before. The illustrations are drawn in the horizontal format - they are wider than they are tall - and in beautiful watercolors. The story is delightful and universal, full of wonderful detail and whimsical invention: how many of us have often dreamed of finding something which would be special and unique just by chance, to feel the joy of discovery? The juxtaposition of imagination and reality is truly delightful, and so is the uplifting mood of the book and it's message -the perserverance of wonder in an never ending chain.

Using a camera with roll film, photograph close-up details of well-known landmarks in your neighbourhood, or views seen from an unusual angle. Collecting shells on the beach, a boy is caught by a wave. When it recedes, he finds an old-fashioned camera containing seemingly impossible scenes of underwater life. You’ll need several copies of the book, so that children can follow the illustrations in small groups.

Curriculum

How would these creatures move? With each child holding part of the creature, groups must animate them like puppets, making them swim around the room. Borrow some old-fashioned cameras and ask children to explore them. Weigh and measure the cameras, as if they are scientific specimens and make notes about the materials used. Describe what can be seen, felt and heard. Draw the cameras from different angles, as accurately as possible. One of the reasons I love Wiesner’s work is that he comes up with ideas I would never think about. A mysterious camera would be something a child would want to keep so the lesson here is to see if the boy understands the long-term goal of the obviously amazing camera. An enjoyable read.

Look at the different items of scientific equipment that the family brought to the beach with them. What are they? How are they used? How about visiting your nearest beach to identify and observe the wildlife? Or, you could conduct a survey of rubbish washed up by the tide, researching topics such as flotsam and beach combing. That all changed when I moved year groups into Year Five and to my joy, discovered one of our topics was about pollution. I decided I wanted to focus on the devastating problem of plastic waste and micro plastics on our ocean ecosystems and animals. I finally had the perfect opportunity presented to me to use this stunning book and I began to get excited. Children will enjoy getting an overview of the story as a class, then exploring the book individually afterwards. E.T., the Storybook of the Green Planet by William Kotzwinkle; based on the film story by Steven Spielberg and Melissa MathisonPostcards, setting descriptions, non- chronological reports, message in a bottle letters Main Outcome: Themes include imaginative undersea worlds; invented creatures; light and cameras; microscopes and collections of natural specimens; floating and sinking; biodegradability and rubbish; geography and ocean currents; historical timelines and community cohesion; as well as numerous opportunities for writing, drama, music, art and dance. 1 | Plot synopsis From arguably the most inventive and cerebral visual storyteller in children’s literature, comes a wordless invitation to drift with the tide, with the story, with your eyes, with your imagination. I have become a big fan of David Wiesner’s children’s books, probably because one doesn’t need to be a child to enjoy them. They are collectibles and such pleasures to enjoy. There aren’t words, but the wonderful illustrations always tell the stories by themselves. The camera concept feels very familiar to me. I'm sure I've seen this but with a camera phone. The discoverer took pictures of themselves and then left the phone to be discovered by someone else. The phone travelled all over the world. I just can't remember where I saw this, whether it was a news item or part of a TV show.

Then give the children Post-it notes and ask them to supply answers to the questions generated by others.They should be as imaginative as possible. A bright, science-minded boy goes to the beach equipped to collect and examine flotsam-anything floating that has been washed ashore. Bottles, lost toys, small objects of every description are among his usual finds. But there's no way he could have prepared for one particular discovery: a barnacle-encrusted underwater camera, with its own secrets to share . . . and to keep. Text Rationale: I would recommend this book for just about any age group. The purpose for using it will vary, but it fosters our creative side, whether you are 5 or 15. Older students could use it for a writing activity in which they have to create words to go with each image. Flotsam is a short and beautiful picture book, bound to delight both children and adults alike. It is a great book for children (of all ages) to read on their own and to read together with their older companions.

Coverage:

Try a sketching trip to the aquarium, or twin your class with a school overseas, exchanging pictures and stories and making new connections. This can build into an exercise where half the class are ‘taunters’ on the beach, and half work together as the waves, ‘replying’ to them. This book is very thought-provoking. The illustrations are beautiful and the story is easy to follow. This is one of my favorites this year. This is a three-week Writing Root for Flotsam by David Wiesner in which children dicsover a range of ‘Flotsam’ items (either after a visit to the seaside, or that have appeared in the classroom). One item is a camera that contains mysterious photographs that the children must investigate. These photos come from the book Flotsam by David Wiesner. Children go on to read and reflect on the book, making predictions and retelling orally and in writing. Later in the sequence of learning, the children have the opportunity to create their own sequel to the story, called Jetsam, where they write the story of the child who next finds the camera. As an optional additional study, this could also link to a study of the history of cameras and report writing about this and could include a historical link about the way cameras have changed the way history is recorded. Synopsis of Text: