Horn Book Review
Readers follow every step of the (fictional) container ship Carolina, which is carrying freight from a port in Asia to delivery in the Netherlands. Carolina acts as narrator, initially providing details about the process of docking and loading, while informative cutaway illustrations display the diverse cargo. Dong's clear, flat, geometrical digital illustrations also illuminate size. The massive ship dwarfs a pair of large baleen whales swimming by; readers turn the page and see the ship alone on the ocean -- "a drop of color / on a canvas of blue." As the ship rounds the coast of India, personification becomes more pronounced as once "lonely" vessels assemble in the Suez Canal. But the canal is blocked, and Carolina must divert its path, weathering a fierce storm off the Cape of Good Hope before continuing north through the Atlantic. Arriving in Amsterdam, the unloading begins: "Trade is flowing, the world keeps going. But oceans away, new ports await." An outline map clearly shows Carolina's route, and readers can return to it noting specific points of the journey, such as where the ship meets rough weather. A wealth of back matter, most aimed at an older audience, includes notes about trade and containerization; a glossary; potential related jobs; various additional facts; and internet resources, including an activity guide on buoyancy. An audience-appropriate seek-and-find activity completes the book. Betty CarterNovember/December 2023 p.109 (c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A colossal narrator takes younger readers on a long, essential voyage. Estimating that 80% to 90% of the world's global trade moves by ship, Schmitt assumes the voice of a (generic) gargantuan vessel piled high with "intermodal containers" to retrace a long journey--delayed by a major storm and extended by a detour around Africa when another ship blocks the Suez Canal--from (according to the dotted line on a schematic map) one unspecified port in east Asia to another in northern Europe. A scene of the ship circling a stopwatch evokes the sense of mission that rings throughout the author's terse, rhythmic narrative ("I carry goods wherever I go / helping the global economy flow"), and another startling view of the vessel steaming past two diminutive whales really brings home its sheer size. Elsewhere Dong presents flattened, stylized portraits of it and other working ships of diverse size and design, also offering frequent cutaway glimpses of what they carry, from pineapples and pumpkins to cars, clothes, and cows. Along with an expanded discussion of the challenges of the shipping trade, the backmatter includes a select list of related careers and leads to online resources. Rare human figures in the pictures are mostly brown-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.) An informative peek at our global infrastructure's major lifeline. (Informational picture book. 5-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
