Beneath the Bridge

Author: Hazel Hutchins
Illustrator: Ruth Ohi
Annick Press, 2004
ISBN: 1-55037-858-9 (sc)
ISBN:  1-55037-859-7 (hc)

Blue Spruce Nominee

Synopsis:

A tiny boat’s giant journey.

When a young boy launches a tiny paper boat downstream, he wonders about the adventures it will have on its voyage. The little vessel sails past goggling frogs and hovering insects, houses and stores along the shores, roads and railways, and eventually into the shadows of giant ships.

Though the big river becomes a dangerous place for the small boat, there are enough helpers on the water to keep the vessel afloat and on its way. The paper ship is safely passed from canoe to riverboat and finally to the crew of an ocean liner.

 

“Someday I’ll follow, just to see,” thinks the boy, “but for now it sails for me.” Beneath the Bridge is a rhythmic and moving tale told in verse that gently runs through detailed and dynamic illustrations.

The Globe and Mail:

“The paper boat looks large when it begins its voyage, launched from the bank of a trickle of a stream. The wide-eyed boy whose boat this is has constructed a twig bridge resting on pebbles, under which his boat will float. The double-page spread, almost entirely given over to Ruth Ohi’s gentle, watercolours, is interrupted by an equally gentle ditty: ‘Beneath the bridge/water flows/Where it’s headed/no one knows./Travelling merrily along–/my small boat.’ ‘My small boat’ travels merrily along, passing under increasingly bigger bridges, from a branch over the widened stream to a covered bridge to a many-arched city bridge to a multi-spanned bridge that marks the point where the river empties into the sea. A riverine adventure whose lilting rhyme will carry readers along from small beginnings to large outpourings - not unlike life itself.” (reviewed by Susan Perren)

Quill & Quire:

“Hutchins brings her trademark warmth, playful humour, and gentle spirit to this story of a child torn between his fear of leaving the haven of the known world and his fascination with the hustle and bustle of the wonderland beyond. The boat functions as a metaphor for the adventurous journey the boy himself will take one day.Hutchins’ melodic rhyming text is as soothing as a lullaby. The repetitive refrain, which builds as the boat travels along, includes questions that invite child and parent to participate in the adventure, and to see and celebrate life in all its forms. The answers to the questions are found in Ruth Ohi’s watercolour illustrations. Ohi’s illustrations are an essential story component, as essential to its realization as a melody is to a song lyric, conjuring up the scenes hinted at by the spare text. Ohi’s visually lush, quirkily detailed illustrations begin in the pastoral countryside, gradually picking up colour and energy as the boat nears the city port. By frequently shifting viewpoint, Ohi evokes intimacy and perspective, creating a sense of movement and momentum. Guided by Hutchins’ encouraging questions and reassuring text, children will delight in the wonderful world captured by Ohi’s feast-for-the-eyes illustrations. No doubt they will take many a repeat voyage through this charming book.” (starred review)