As an abandoned canoe reminisces about bygone adventures with its beloved boy, are the best days behind it—or is there a glimmer of new life just ahead?
Runner-up for WORLD Magazine's Children's Picture Books of the Year
Classical illustrations with muted colors, involving details, and fine lines complement this nostalgic historical tale set in a lonely boathouse that’s been encroached upon by time and nature. There, a dilapidated boat remembers the boy who once loved to take him out on the lake, searching for adventures. Celebrations of the natural world weave through this haunting story of an incalculable loss—and about the healing power of the long-delayed return of summer fun.
–Foreword Reviews, March 2022
Inside an old boathouse lies a rotting canoe, home to mice and raccoons. The scene shifts back in time to a young boy waiting anxiously for a delivery. A horse-drawn wagon finally appears and unloads a red canoe. This gentle, nostalgic story is told from the point of view of the canoe, describing long summer days on the lake as the boy explores. While children may be surprised that the canoe’s perspective is represented, this technique serves to unify the text and demonstrate the passage of time. Illustrations show the boy and his dog growing older, venturing farther, until one day the boy, now a young man, puts on a uniform and leaves for war. The canoe hopes for his return, but it is left in the boathouse and eventually abandoned. Softly detailed artwork captures the canoe’s heyday and its long wait amongst various forgotten pieces of family life. Many years later, a new boy appears. He helps repair the canoe and then eagerly puts it into the water. At long last, it is summer again.
–Booklist, 03/15/2022
Classical illustrations with muted colors, involving details, and fine lines complement this nostalgic historical tale set in a lonely boathouse that’s been encroached upon by time and nature. There, a dilapidated boat remembers the boy who once loved to take him out on the lake, searching for adventures. Celebrations of the natural world weave through this haunting story of an incalculable loss—and about the healing power of the long-delayed return of summer fun.
–Michelle Anne Schingler, Foreword Reviews (Starred Review), 03/01/2022
Letting unloved possessions go...means that we increase the chances that they will find owners who really want them. Something of that bittersweet cycle plays out in the wistful pages of “The Red Canoe,” written and illustrated by Anne Yvonne Gilbert. This picture book for 4- to 8-year-olds begins at a ramshackle lakeside boathouse in the winter: “Wrapped in stiff canvas like an ancient mummy lay the old red canoe, its fragile ribs grown brittle with age, its once bright paint faded, forgotten.” Nibbled by mice, a home to raccoons, the canoe can yet remember happier days. As the pages turn, we go back in time to the day a horse-drawn wagon delivers the canoe to a young boy. Summer after summer, the growing boy explores the lake in the canoe before carefully stowing it away again. “It should have gone on forever,” we read, “but one year, news from abroad left the boy restless.” We see the boy, now a young man, in the uniform of a World War I Doughboy as he says goodbye to his mother. Years pass. The canoe molders. And then—the boathouse door opens, “creaking loudly on its rusty hinges,” bringing a new era, a new boy and a second chance for the old red canoe.
–Meghan Cox Gurdon, Wall Street Journal, 03/18/2022
A red canoe recalls the many adventures it had with a boy with blond hair and large eyes, who grew up and went away, and only from the pictures will adults know that this boy soldier fought and likely died in the first World War. Still, the summer days they spent together sustain the old canoe, who is home to wildlife, and shelter for others, and ages in the old red boathouse until it is discovered anew and restored to the waters by another child, with brown skin and a determined look. The book lingers for pages over the first owner, and then the lost years, but devotes a mere page turn or two to the red canoe’s next life. This is abrupt, yet it’s enough of a signal, whether this is used in units on time, death, recycling, seasons, or loss. It gives readers hope that the story is not over, even if they are not there to witness it. Gilbert’s art has the charm of an old and well-loved barn, with an affectionate patina covering each scene, and sunlight dappled across forest glades. VERDICT A reminiscence worth sharing, for leisurely read-alouds, and a book that already feels like a keepsake.
–Kimberly Olson Fakih, School Library Journal, 04/01/2022
Wrapped like a mummy in an old boathouse, and currently home to a family of raccoons, a red canoe remembers the life it once had with a boy it loved. As the boy and his puppy grew into young adulthood, they all explored lakes and waterways and observed their ever-expanding wild world together. Each winter, the red canoe would wait for the boy’s return in summer. That is, until the year that war broke out, and the boy went off to do his part. The canoe slept and waited through many winters, its paint fading and ribs nibbled on by mice, until one day the boathouse doors open and a new boy brings the canoe out into the sunshine. Featuring heartfelt text and beautifully rendered illustrations, this picture book evokes a sense of an idyllic, bygone era. With a strong focus on the possibility for renewal, ultimately this is a story that may appeal strongest to adults. The painstakingly detailed artwork is stunning, using rich earth tones and fine sepia cross-hatching to achieve a vintage quality. Suffused with nostalgia and a reverence for nature, the artwork will draw children in more thoroughly than the very quiet story.
–Jan Aldrich Solow, School Library Connection, 05/01/2022
Sheltered in a weathered boathouse, an abandoned red canoe rests while wrapped in a gnawed on, dusty, canvas shroud. The canoe reminisces about the days when it went on adventures with a young boy. The canoe and the boy shared many summers traveling in the lake, locating the bays, and camping on the shores. The boy grew to become a young man who enlisted in the military to do his duty. Meanwhile, the canoe waited summer after summer for the young man to return to the boathouse. The lightly brown-tinted, finely-detailed illustrations capture the warmth of fond, old memories. Notice the furry, woodland animals as they seek refuge in the canoe; see the texture of the tree trunks and the wispy, grassy, flowery fields. The story closes with a satisfying ending and hope for the red canoe. Readers will be drawn into the canoe’s life and the pictures of this beautifully illustrated, heartwarming story.
–Carrie Hane Hung, Children's Literature, 01/01/2022
Gilbert recounts a red canoe’s life with its first owner, a light-skinned boy who grows, over many adventurous summers launching the vessel, into a young man in the years leading up to a faraway war. The young man cannot “roam and fish when others his age were... bravely laying down their lives,” and so the canoe awaits his return. After years of neglect in a forgotten boathouse, where raccoon and mouse families make their homes, a dark-skinned boy discovers the red canoe and sets himself to fixing it like new, taking up the role of the craft’s faithful companion. Meticulously cross-hatched illustrations in sepia tones evoke a sense of innocence befitting a story of childhood happiness lost and found again. Bucolic lake and country settings brim with fine details that further underline the book’s themes of timelessness and ephemerality.
–Publisher's Weekly, 06/09/2022
The Red Canoe, by Anne Yvonne Gilbert, is a story that takes this precious canoe, rich with memories of its owner, through life’s adventures. A young boy receives this precious canoe and begins to take it on the lake for much enjoyment. When he grows up and leaves, the canoe is left in the boathouse, forgotten for many years. When another boy discovers what lies inside this shed, he is thrilled and restores it back to life. The beautiful, muted colors fill one side of the open page and the book is perfect for ages six through nine.
–Holly Newton, Newton's Book News, 09/16/2022
“Wrapped in stiff canvas like an ancient mummy lay the old red canoe, its fragile ribs grown brittle with age.” In this richly illustrated tale, readers go back in time to the red canoe’s first days on the river with his boy. As the boy grows, he and the canoe together learn the hidden ways of the water and nearby animals—wolves, deer, bears, birds, and more. But when the boy doesn’t return from war, the red canoe waits patiently to be used again. With elements reminiscent of Huck Finn’s adventures and the velveteen rabbit’s love, The Red Canoe’s classic storytelling will keep kids and adults returning to this story—especially Christians who prize redemption stories.
–Emily Whitten, World Magazine, 02/23/2023