Voyage to the Pharos
Voyage to the Pharos
Written by: Sarah Gauch
Illustrated by: Roger Roth
Penguin Young Readers Group, 2009
28 pages
Multicultural
Dino was a young boy who yearned to travel on the ship with his father. The ship took wine, oil, and leather to faraway places. He particularly wanted to go to Alexandria to see the Pharos lighthouse. His father finally allowed him to travel when he thought he was old enough. The ship they traveled on was called the Hermes. While he was on the ship, Dino had to help his father prepare and serve the meals. One day Dino helped the men put the sails up and this allowed the captain and the navigator to see that he sincerely wanted to help and that he could be responsible. The captain asked Dino to climb up to the top of the mast and be a lookout for rocks and reefs and the upcoming lighthouse because there was a storm approaching. Dino saw the lighthouse and told the navigator which way to steer the ship. Amidst the excitement of finally seeing the lighthouse, Dino forgot he was also supposed to be watching out for rocks and reefs. When he remembered he was supposed to be watching for this he looked down and saw that they were about to hit a rock. He warned the men and they steered away from it. Because of Dino, they made it safely to Alexandria.
The illustrations in this book look like they were done in watercolor and pencil. Roth uses diagonal lines to show the rain coming in on the ship. He also creates night and day by using dark colors for nighttime and brighter colors for daytime. This is seen throughout the book. Most of the pages in the book are single page spreads except for the very first page and the very last page which are double page spreads. The text placement is informal.
This book will be good to use in the classroom when studying faraway places or lighthouses. There is an author’s note at the end of the book which talks about the Pharos lighthouse. Students could read this book and then use the internet or other resources to study the Pharos lighthouse. I would have the children create a lighthouse as an art project.
Roger Roth is an award-winning illustrator, but I don’t know of any awards this book has won.
