Blog #16 Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee

Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee

Written and Illustrated by Chris Van Dusen
Chronicle Books
2006
28 pages

Fantasy

      I chose this particular book because the cover art lets the reader know that inside is an adventure. In this book, Mr. Magee takes his dog on a boat ride, but on this day it’s not just an ordinary boat ride. Mr. Magee and his dog Dee come across a pod of whales. While they were unaware, a whale calf swam under their boat. Before they knew it, they were stuck in a tree sixty feet in the air! They waited and waited until it was almost dark, but you’ll have to read the book to find out if and how they made it out of the tree!

      The illustrations in this book are depicted using gouache. The dense consistency of this particular medium adds an unmistakable vibrant saturation to the colors. The style could almost be computer generated because of the style of shading and highlighting used. In the beginning of the book, the perspective and lines are horizontal and smooth reflecting the sense of calm. Toward the middle when the action picks up, the perspective changes and the lines become more vertical reflecting the energy and action during this part of the story. Throughout the book, a double page spread is used to fully display the visual of the story. Also notable is the use of proportion. For the most part, Mr. Magee and Dee are in relatively small proportion compared to their surroundings. This illustrates the vastness of the ocean and how one might feel small in comparison while sailing out to sea.  

      This book has an excellent rhyme scheme and would be great for using during a poetry lesson for third or fourth grade students. For younger students, this book could be used during a math lesson. The teacher could stop reading the book before the ending occurs and ask the students to predict how many whales they think it will take to get Mr. Magee and Dee out of the tree. They could draw a picture of this to demonstrate their understanding of counting using whales. 

To visit Chris Van Dusen's website, click on his name.