The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship

The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship retold by Arthur Ransome, pictures by Uri Shulevitz
1969 Caldecott Medal

I'm a storyteller and one of the highest compliments I can give a story is "I want to tell this one." This is a story I've always wanted to tell a version of, and this is a good retelling. It's a traditional tale and you'll find it in the non-fiction part of the library in the 398's along with lots of other wonderful folk tales.

Uri Shulevitz has won Caldecott Honor's  quite a few times. . . four times to be exact. (Snow, The Treasure, How I Learned Geography, plus this one).  He uses line drawings with water color washes that have a nice balance of simplicity and fine detail.

In this story you have The Fool of the World as the hero (always a good start!), a flying ship (not bad either), and a whole passel of comrades for the journey with names like Swift Goer--- a fellow who goes about with one leg tied up beside his head because if he uses both legs he'll just plain go too fast! Or The Listener: "I can hear him snoring. And there is a fly buzzing with it's wings, perched on th windmill close above his head." (all this 100's of miles away of course).

In a stunning display of magical skills and team work of course the day is saved!

My 7 year old AND my 10 year old both enjoyed the story.