We'll All Go Sailing: (First Flight)

About the Book

Richard Thompson and Maggee Spicer join forces with Kim LaFave in this colourful tour of the seas. The young narrator and his friends, Maggee and Jesse, travel to a myriad of places to look at sea life that is every colour of the rainbow. Children will delight in the pink octopus, the blue manatee, and the orange barracuda, to name but a few.

Richard Thompson and Maggee Spicer have created a rhythmic poem (in the same vein as their ealier collaboration, Fishes in the Ocean) that will encourage the very youngest of new readers. Together with Kim La Fave's bold and playful illustrations, this delightful poem will . . .

make a fine book To show what we'll see, When we all go sailing On the rainbow seas.

About the Author :
Richard Thompson is the popular author of many books for young readers, including When They Are Up, The Night Walker, The Follower, Fishes in the Ocean, and There is Music in a Pussycat.
Maggee Spicer has previously collaborated with her husband Richard Thompson on When They Are Up and Fishes in the Ocean. She is an elementary school teacher and lives with her husband and daughter Jesse in Prince George, British Columbia.
Kim LaFave is a prolific picture book artist with many titles to his name, including Amos's Sweater, Ben Over Night, and Big Ben, which earned him the Mr. Christie's Book Award Silver Seal. He has also won the Governor General's Award, the Ruth Schwartz Children's Book Award, and the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator's Award. Kim lives on the west coast of Canada, in Robert's Creek, British Columbia.

Review :
"Illustrator Kim LaFave successfully test-drives a new style of art in this latest picture book. Boldly coloured sea creatures with thick, dark outlines lie against a high-contrast background. The trio in the boat resemble figures from Popeye, while many of the other images have the simple feel of the work of the late New York artist Keith Haring, but with lots of added texture. The 'green jellyfish' and the 'bright blue cod' splashed against a canary yellow background in one memorable spread create a fabulous impact. The poem at the end provides the full text on one page for those who want to savour just the words. Clearly, both the illustrations and the writing are solid enough to stand alone, but together, the effect is superb."
-- STARRED REVIEW, The Quill and Quire

"A rollicking tale of adventure at sea featuring three small, cartoonish characters in a red sailboat on an indigo blue sea. Almost eclipsing the sea shanty, though, is the visual and tactile adventure that this picture book offers. . . An age-appropriate amount of suspense keeps things rolling along nicely to a satisfactory conclusion."
-- The Globe and Mail

". . . La Fave's intense colours, with his three Katzenjammer Kids-like picnickers, make this picture book visually lively and an effective tool for talking about colours. Broad black outlines highlight bouncing waves and exotic sea creatures that fairly jump off the page."
-- The Toronto Star

"This well designed picture book introduces both colors and sea animals. . . The repeated pattern of the rhyming text and visual clues that allow children to guess make this book a good book to read aloud. . . The boldly conceived and vividly colored artwork is visually absorbing, and the jaunty air of the child characters remains charming throughout."
-- Booklist

"Colour is a defining feature . . . in the hands of the British Columbia trio of Maggee Spicer, Richard Thompson and Kim LaFave in We'll All Go Sailing. Authors Spicer and Thompson have crafted a simple adventure that sails through LaFave's bold and colourful underwater art. . . This nautical adventure will be a hit with the preschool set, not to mention their parents."
-- The Hamilton Spectator