The Wreck of the Zephyr

by Chris Van Allsburg

In illustrations so vivid one can feel the whisper of wind and hear the flutter of canvas, depart this world for another to entertain the marvelous possibility of dreams.

Beloved Caldecott-winning illustrator Chris Van Allsburg invites readers to peer over the edge of a cliff to consider the wreck of a small sailboat. Had a churning sea carried the Zephyr up in a storm? Could waves ever have been so impossibly high? And what of the boy who had believed—dared to chase the wind—no matter where it lead?

The winds have shifted once again, and you’re invited to hear the story of the boy and his obsession to become the world’s greatest sailor and a storm that carried them to a place where boats sail on the wind, instead of on the water.

Told in spare text and haunting, full-color pastels, Chris Van Allsburg’s spectral sailboats take impossible flight.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fantasy, Fiction, Adventure, Art, Classics

32 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 1983

About the author

Chris was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on June 18, 1949, the second child of Doris Christiansen Van Allsburg and Richard Van Allsburg. His sister Karen was born in 1947.

Chris’s paternal grandfather, Peter, owned and operated a creamery, a place where milk was turned into butter, cream, cottage cheese, and ice cream. It was named East End Creamery and after they bottled the milk (and made the other products) they delivered it to homes all around Grand Rapids in yellow and blue trucks.

When Chris was born, his family lived in an old farm house next door to the large brick creamery building. It was a very old house that, like the little house in Virginia Lee Burton’s story, had once looked over farmland. But by 1949, the house was surrounded by buildings and other houses. Chris’s father ran the dairy with Chris’s three uncles after his grandfather Peter retired.

When Chris was three years old, his family moved to a new house at the edge of Grand Rapids that was part of a development; a kind of planned neighborhood, that was still being built.

There remained many open fields and streams and ponds where a boy could catch minnows and frogs, or see a firefly at night. It was about a mile and a half to Breton Downs School, which Chris walked to every day and attended until 6th grade, when the Van Allsburg family moved again.

The next house they lived in was an old brick Tudor Style house in East Grand Rapids. It was a street that looked like the street on the cover of The Polar Express. The houses were all set back the same distance from the street. Between the street and the sidewalk grew enormous Elm trees whose branches reached up and touched the branches of the trees on the other side of the street. Chris moved to this street with his mom, dad, sister, and two Siamese cats. One named Fafner and the other name Eloise.

Chris went to junior and senior high school in East Grand Rapids. He didn’t take art classes during this time. His interests and talents seemed to be more in the area of math and science.

Reviews

[Lee (the Book Butcher) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Made a mistake bought this from Amazon thinking it was zathura by the same author.

Very short kids book. About a young sailor who is one of the best sailors around. He has a shipwreck and ends up in a land where ships fly He has them teach him. But fails then sets flight himself. But it's a bit of a icarus story and he wrecks his boat. Then he's deported as the villagers planned all along. Leaving his ship zephyr behind on a hill.

This was simple and to short probably needs Hollywood to living it up. Hope Jumanji and zathura are better reads.

[Calista · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spoilers on this one:




I would love to own all of Chris’s books. He has a wonderful imagination. He also tells a great story and he had me hooked on this book. A young boy asks about a boat that is high up on a cliff and looked like it was tossed there. It’s hard to figure out how a boat could get so high on land. An old man tells him the story of the boat and it’s easy enough to realize the old man was the boy in the story and the boat. I was drawn into the story and how things happened. During a storm, the boy ends up in another bay he had never seen and the boats there can fly. He sets out to learn to fly his boat and he figures it out. He flies the boat home and the wind is never as steady over land as sea. There you have it.

I loved this story and the artwork that goes with it. It transported me into the story. It was a good story.

The nephew loved seeing the boats fly in the air. He liked the confident boy who knew he could fly his boat. He got into this story as well. He didn’t see the reveal coming at the end, that the old man owned the boat, but he thought that was a cool turn of events. The niece would have caught that early. The nephew gave this 4 stars.

[Shiloah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an imaginative tale that intrigued my children. They wanted to know—is it true? 😉

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Know what I think, Daddy? I think the old man telling the story is actually the boy in the story!"

[Aaron Becker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic from Van Allsburg. And the book that inspired me to create Journey.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one might be more like a 3.5 or a 3.75. I enjoyed the story of this one, the art, and, as always, a very interesting concept. I just felt like it needed one more page or something that really tied it all up - more than what the actual final page had attempted to do.

[Esperanza · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Wreck of the Zephyr is a magical story that leaves what happened in the story to the reader. The story begins with a visitor finding a boat up on a hill. The visitor is wondering how this boat got there, when he is surprised by an old man. The old man tells our visitor how there was once a storm that carried the boat up the hill, then he continues by giving the visitor a second option, A cautionary tale of a young boy who believed he was the best sailor in the world. During a storm, against the caution of a fisherman, the boy takes his boat out into the storm and ends up in a magical world where boats sail in the air. The boy persuades a man to teach him how to sail in the air, after failing after a day of lesson, the boy secretly takes a boat out and sails outside the magical land, he later crashes into the hill. The boy tries to return to the magical land but can never find it again. The story ends leaving the reader wondering if the old man was the boy or if rising waters really carried the boat to the hill.I feel this story warns our readers how being overconfident can ruin a talent.

This story would be great to integrate in the classroom when students are learning about character. How pride can hurt ourselves. Another lesson we can teach with this book is how descriptions of weather can foretell the story. For example when the sailor is telling the boy how a big storm is coming and he shouldn't go out because only the seagulls can navigate the wind.

[Kirsten Whisler · Rating 3 out of 5]

The beginning of the story was unpredictable but once it got going you could tell there was a moral and the little boy would get into trouble. It was simplistic enough to read and definitely would work to read aloud.One day a man was walking up a hill where he came to a boat wreckage and an old man. When asked what happened the man told a story about a child who was the best sailor on the island. He went out in a storm when he shouldn’t have and landed on an island where boats flew. He decided to learn how to fly his boat and the couple that took him in offered to teach him if he left in the morning. He agreed and they proceeded to teach him how to fly and when they did they sang a song about how dangerous it is to fly over land because the wind over land is unpredictable . The little boy was unable to fly during the lesson but he decided to go out after the couple went to sleep. He succeeded in flying over the water and he decided he wanted everyone at his home town to see him fly his boat so he flew the boat over land to ring the bell tower but as soon as he was no longer over the water the boat became unmanageable and wrecked on the hill. The old man was the little boy and was still trying to find himself another set of flying sails so he could fly his boat again.

[Tatiana · Rating 5 out of 5]

An old man tells the story of a boy and his boat, the Zephyr, and how it came to rest on the edge of a cliff in a small fishing village. The boy’s ambition to be the greatest sailor in the world led him to crash the Zephyr and discover an island where boats magically sail high above the water. On his own, the boy flies the Zephyr home, it crashes on the edge of the cliff, but the boy never stopped looking for the mysterious island.

The enigmatic story and evocative illustrations demand students to suspend disbelief and embrace their imaginations. Allsburg is famous for beginning his stories in a realistic scene and then engaging in a “what if” fantasy scenario that ends in suspense and speculation: Was the story of the Zephyr true? Is the old man the boy all grown up? Younger students will want to believe in the fantastical idea of flying boats, but older students might be more dubious and want to dispel the claim.

[Lydia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chris Van Allsburg did a great job in creating this book. It's not just about a boy who wrecked the Zephyr. This books framing is unique in that it tells a story within a story. You can't tell right away, which is the great thing about it. There is a lot of hidden meaning and symbolism throughout, so you have to pay attention. This would be a fun book to read to children because it's surreal. Everything may seem normal at first, but this author never ceases to make something out-of-the ordinary happen, when you least expect it. This book is unpredictable, at least it was to me, which is typically not a quality found in children's books. Highly recommend!

[Annawade Stevenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Wreck of the Zephyr" by Chris Van Allenburg is a unique type of picture book within the fantasy genre. The story starts with a person, who remains undescribed, that is walking along the seashore and comes across some cliffs. On these cliffs, he spots an old man and a wreck of a sailboat. The person asks the old man how the sailboat got here, and he begins to tell a story, about a little boy, who was really good at sailing boats. When a storm came, and the sea began to be stirred up, the boy wanted to prove to the rest of his village that he is the best sailor, so he went out to sail in the storm. However, the waves got bigger and the boon of the sailboat swung around and hit him in the head, and knocked him out. He got washed up on an island and surprisingly sees two sail boats that are "high above the water". From the illustration, the reader can tell that the sailboats are actually flying. He ran down to the dock, and saw a sailor, which whom he pleaded with to learn how to sail above the water. The sailor tried to teach the boy, but the boy could not get the sailboat to lift up in the sky, like the other boats on this strange island. The boy was frustrated so he snuck out from the sailor's house at night, and decided to try again. In a magical illustration, with a dreamy full moon and night sky, the boy's sailboat began to fly, and got higher and higher. He managed to rise above the clouds and drift away, so he decided now was the time to prove to his villagers that he is the best sailor. He started to sail over his village and was planning to ring his sailboat's bell, but suddenly the wind changed and he came crashing down and got caught in the trees at the edge of the cliff. This was the story the old man told, but the old man's last lines are ambiguous and vague, and might suggest to the reader an important fact about who the boy was. I strongly recommend this book and give it five stars because it relates to many readers, anyone who likes the outdoors, tales about people and the sea, adventure, mystery and fantasy . The picture book was well written for both adults and children. Adults will enjoy the contemplating about the meaning of the book, and the themes of the story such as hubris, while children will like the mysterious aspect of the island, flying sailboats, and the secret nighttime adventure the boy has.
This picture book has some elements that cause it fall into the genre of fantasy, but it is unique because the author blurs the distinctions of reality and fantasy world's, which is reflected in both the text and illustrations. The story starts is a completely realistic world, where one is walking along a shore and just sees an old sailboat and man looking at it. Even when the man tells the story about the boy, the setting of the story takes place in the real world as well, near an ocean and a harbor. However, after the boy is carried away by the storm, the fantasy world takes over, as he spots flying sailboats. Obviously, sailboats do not fly in real life, but it could be a metaphor for taking a passion and heightening that experience of a passion, as the boy loves sailing and literally takes it to new levels, as he flies above the clouds. The boy starts flying at night, when the moon is full and most people are sleeping, and this could signal that there is magic in the air. When the story ends, and the reader now understands how that sailboat got on the cliff, the author tries to bring the reader back to reality. The old man explains that no one believed the boy, and he might have just got thrown up on the cliff with his sailboat due to the waves. It is up to the reader to determine what they believe, reality, fantasy or both. The unambiguous ending adds the the blurring of fantasy and reality, when the old man explains the details of the boy's life, like how he never got famous, but he was always searching for that island. The last few lines of the text explain that the old man has to leave because he has some sailing to do. This maybe means that the old man could have been the boy that flew the sailboats, and now he is reflecting on his life, telling the reader and the passerby his story. The story could even start again as he himself is now going to go sailing. Therefore, the author weaves the reader through reality and fantasy as the reader considers the possibilities. The art style also adds to the fantasy aspect of the book, because the drawings are full color pastels, which add the dramatic sketches the rough sea and magical sky. The art style is also full of impressionism, where shadows are drawn representing the mystery of the story, and the sky is illuminated showing the medium in which the sailboats fly in. The illustrations have borders, causing the reader to look into the world to get a glimpse of the images on each page. Due to the borders, and only one illustration on each right side of the page, the illustrations look rather fleeting. Thus, the illustrations mirror the magic and fantasy in the story because magic is fleeting, where the sailboats only flew in the sky for a certain time. This story may not have unicorns and take place in a unknown world or have talking animals, but "The Wreck of Zephyr" is still fantasy because of the supernatural events, like the sailboats, and the way the author tries to take the reader for a ride between the reality and fantasy world. Read this book if you want to create your own value and meaning from this adventurous story!

[Nancy Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

gorgeous book

[Garrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Wreck of the Zephyr is a great book, that models enhancing interaction between illustration and text. It is the story of a man who encounters a strange shipwreck on the cliffs above his village. There he encounters an old man who tells two stories of the shipwreck: that it was carried there in a storm (which the character finds hard to believe), and that it crash-landed there after a fanciful journey. The book consists of the fanciful journey as the old man tells it. The ship came to land there because of a young boy who, in his hubris was shipwrecked after a storm and rescued by village where people can sail through the skies. The boy steals the secret of flight from these people and sails away (almost literally into the sunset). Upon reaching his own village, he wishes to show off to everyone what he can do, and in attempting to do so, crashes.

Though the words in and of themselves tell a marvelous story, the illustrations bring the tale to life. Enhancing interaction between illustration and text is when the pictures and the words work with one another to tell a more elaborate story than they would alone. A good example of this is on pages three and four where the young boy's hubris (or cockiness) is shown. He is described as frequently "ready to prove to the villagers [and] to the sea itself how great a sailor he was". On the opposite page we see him demonstrating his skills on a choppy sea by taking a sharp turn, the edge of the boat actually dipping beneath the waves to complete the maneuver. We also see this interaction in the later parts of the book. Interestingly, the darkest illustrations of the book are not when the boy is being lost in the storms. It is when he steals and practices with the sails that make the sailboats fly. From the moment the boy steals the sails, all of the pictures are much darker, in complete contrast to the bright, sunny pictures found before. Complete light does not return until the end when we return to the old man and his companion in the present. The darkest part is when the boy actually begins to fly out on the lake. His boat blocks out the moon, and the only other light comes from the small lighthouse and miniscule stars. This choice of design is not coincidence. The light reflects the boys heart. Hopeful yet prideful innocence turns to the darkness of robbery and selfishness. In this darkest part, the young boy has accepted wrong-doing to feul his insatiable desire to bbe the best. The reader looks on helpless as the boy plunges himself into this self-made moral pit. In the end, we come to the light of the present, where we see the true result of the boy's choices. A life squandered, and a tattered reputation. He still sails, but that moment seems to have ruined his life (yes, we don't get confirmation that the old man is the boy, but I will treat the implications as though they were true). Van Allsburg does not hammer into us the gravity of wrongdoing. He lets the light do it for him.

I also like this story because it relates intertextually to other texts, specifically from Greek mythology. I have already mentioned hubris, and the term even comes from the greek myths. Specifically, we can see thematic allusions to the story of Icarus, the young boy who with wax wings flew too close to the sun. Though hubris was not icarus' downfall, we see the same pattern. Both boys fly, and both received a warning not to do something specific in flight. For Icarus, it was not to fly too close to the sun, and for the boy of the story, it was never to fly above land (the warning he heard in the fisherman's song). Both boys disregard the council and reap the consequences. We even see the young boy of the story fly too high, higher than anyone else. To conclude the summary of allusions to Greek mythology, we must note that the word zephyr comes from the Greek God Zephyrus, the God of the favorable west wind. So, this story could be considered as the wreck of the favorable winds of this boy's life.

Therefore, if you wish to present allusions to Greek literature, or if you just wish to enjoy a good book, "The Wreck of the Zephyr" is for you.

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm sure some folks love this and that's fine, but Van Allsburg and I just don't click. And of course I knew the ending right away.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Walking along the beach after a nice picnic, a man discovers a wrecked sailing boat that has drifted far above shore. As he gets closer he spots an old man smoking a pipe who offers to tell him the tale of how the ship got there. One stormy day, a young boy who was an excellent sailor decided to take his ship known as "The Zephyr" out to sea. Unfortunately the storm was too strong for the boy to handle and he awoke on an unknown shore lying next to his shipwrecked boat. On the boys quest for help he is astonished to see two ships sailing on air above the water. When he finally finds the dock where a sailor offers to help him sail his boat back over the reef, the boy tells the man that he will not leave until he learns to sail above the water. The man tells him that it takes years to learn and that The Zephyr does not have the right sails but the boy insists on learning. The man offeres to teach him if he promises to leave the next day, but after a day of lessons the boy could not master the task. That night when the sailor was asleep, the boy went out on his boat again to try to master flying it. This time the boy succeeded in flying The Zephyr. As he reached his home town, however, the boat started to crash and fall. He steered the boat as close to the beach as he could until it fell to the ground. No one believed the boys story, and he lived the rest of his life doing odd jobs around the harbor and searching for the land of the flying ships.
As the old man with his pipe completes this story, he walks off towards shore and exclaims "I have some sailing to do," giving the reader a slight hint that this old man might actually be the boy from his story.

Although the colors used in the illustrations are not very bright, the way Chris Van Allsburg uses oil paint as well as other mediums, makes the pictures seem dream-like and mystical as the old man reflects on his story. His writing keeps the reader engaged as he vibrantly describes the surroundings and the experiences of the young boy. I would recommend this book to children ages 6-9. As a lesson the teacher could have the students define some of the more difficult vocabulary words from the book ahead of time and also reflect on what the book might be about based on the title and cover page.

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for my author study on Chris Van Allsburg.

The Wreck of the Zephyr by Chris Van Allsburg is about a boy who is an excellent sailor. The boy goes out sailing and ends up on a magical island where boats are able to fly. Without the lessons or permission from the towns people, he takes his boat out to fly and to show off to his town. Instead of everyone seeing the boy fly the boat, he crashes his boat, and the boy never amounted to much. This book is at a 3rd grade reading level, but I could see kindergarten- 5th grade students enjoying this book, the younger one would just have to listen to it, rather then read it themselves. I wide variety of students might enjoy it because I think students have fun escaping reality, and hearing about magic. This book did not win any awards; however, if you enjoyed other Chris Van Allsburg books, then this may be a book you would enjoy. This book seems to fit into the themes of some of his others books. It includes magic just like most of his others books. It takes a normal object or idea, and makes it peculiar just as Chris Van Allsburg likes to do in his other books. In this book, a sail boat is not just a sail boat, it becomes a flying sailboat. One of the messages from the book seems to be that success does not come from selfishness. The boy was selfish to take the boat flying without permission or being prepared, and he ended up having an unhappy life because no one believed he was able to fly the boat. It seems like this book would be great to use in a classroom for a text set or author study. I think it would be interesting to compare this book to other Chris Van Allsburg books because I can see a lot of similarities in the plot, but there are also some interesting differences to discuss as well. One thing that would be good to talk about is the illustrations. In many of Chris Van Allsburg books, the illustrations are black/sepia. This book uses color in the illustrations, yet they focus around the blue shades. I wonder if it is because it represents the darkness/sadness of the character's life. Since many of the other books are dark and magical, I wonder what influenced Chris to use color in this specific book over the other ones.

[Brittany Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book! It kept me so entertained the entire time. The cover and structure of the book is identical to “The Stranger”. The dark cover has a boarder around the image on the front and the back cover is blank. Inside is the same as well, with text on the left and images bordered in white on the right. The image on the front is very visually entertaining, with green rough water and dark fluffy clouds.The white sails stand out aginst the darker colors on the cover. The images look painted, or clay-like. All of the illustrations on the inside appear to be created with darker, more saturated colors. It adds an air of mystery or wonder to the pages. Once I started reading the text, I noticed immediately that this story uses a different point of view than other books that I have read this semester. It is as if the narrator is speaking to you, but then someone is telling the narrator the story of the ship, while there is also a narrator at the end of the story describing what happened at the end. It seems complicated when you write it out, but upon reading it my mind followed the story flawlessly. I ADORED the story, especially the very ending. I was shocked when I realized that the man from the beginning of the story using the “I” language was the boy from the story. He was hearing a story about himself! That was such an interesting perspective. I would give this book to a primary school age child, but even I enjoyed it quite a bit. The language is simple, but the story seems to defy the age. I believe there are a few small morals a child can get from this book. Do not be too confident, because it can get you in trouble. Another one might be, do not let others tell you what you can and cannot do if you believe in yourself.

[Becky B · Rating 4 out of 5]

A man comes upon a ship wreck high on a hill. He ponders about the location to a man he sees next to the boat. The man tells him there are two stories about the boat. One is that the boat crashed there during a terrible storm and a wave swept it that high. The other involves a boy who thought he was the greatest sailor ever who found a strange island where ships flew.

See if younger readers can pick up on the clues about who the man telling the story might be. Readers can also debate whether or not the boy really flew or if he dreamed it after being knocked out in the storm. The story also seems to be a fantastical way to illustrate the saying that pride comes before a fall, and you can easily talk about what that means. The illustrations are amazing, soft, and magical. An enchanting ship tale that is left open to the readers' own interpretations.

[Luisa Knight · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm actually not quite sure what I think of this story. It was definitely intriguing and engaging and unlike other plots. But I thought the prideful boy would learn his lesson or that the ending would be more redeeming than it was.

Ages: 6 - 9

Cleanliness: a man smokes a pipe. A boy is arrogant.

**Like my reviews? I also have hundreds of detailed reports that I offer too. These reports give a complete break-down of everything in the book, so you'll know just how clean it is or isn't. I also have Clean Guides (downloadable PDFs) which enable you to clean up your book before reading it! Visit my website: The Book Radar.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

A traveler, while visiting a small fishing village, is told an amazing story of how a small sailboat came to wreck uphill on a cliff high above the sea. An old man told the tale of a small boy who wanted to be the best sailor in the world, and in order to do that he had to take a few risks. No one in his village believed what he did, but the tale told by the old man was an amazing one to the traveler.

[Tim Armstrong · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of Van Allsburg's more surreal picture books, but no less enjoyable.
Spectacularly illustrated throughout you can't help but be taken away and intrigued like a Magritte painting, as noted. Yet another gem

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll keep recommending this author for kids to practice inferring- nearly everything he writes is unexplained. In this one, the narrator hears a man's story of how a boat ended up so high on the dunes.

Questions:

What is the real story?

Who was the boy?

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

An imaginative, if simple, fable, with typically wonderful illustrations by the author. It does feel as if there should be a little more...and that it could stand being expanded into a film, as von Allsburg’s other books Jumanji and Zathura were.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

A surreal story about the fusion of flying and sailing. I kept looking for a nonexistent message.

[Joshua Reitano · Rating 3 out of 5]

My daughter gives it 3 stars. A cautionary tale about arrogance spoiling great talent. Gifts without character usually lead to a major crash.

[Chris Simerly · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always, another great book by Chris Van Allsburg!

[Kay Mcgriff · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strange and magical tale with even more magical illustrations.

[KJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I might have read this book as a kid; it seemed really familiar.

[Jaime · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting mystery. It was a good introduction to our fiction unit.

[Peacegal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unique sailing story with soft-focus, magical illustrations.