The Antlered Ship By Dashka Slater

Carmen

The day the antlered ship arrived, Marco wondered about the wide world.

When I first picked up this book, I thought I had already read it. But no, I was confusing it for another book about animals that explore on a ship:
The Friend Ship. You wouldn't think animals-exploring-on-a-ship would be a theme, but apparently it is quite common.

In this book, our hero, Marco the fox, is very curious about the world. He is full of questions about it, but the other foxes are only concerned about stuff like food.

So when an antlered ship comes into harbor, Marco goes down to meet it. It is the ship of three deer.

So Marco went down to the harbor to see the ship.
Three deer greeted him at the gangplank.
Marco wasn't surprised to learn that they were lost.

Love that snark! ;)

The captain, Captain Sylvia, explains that she is seeking a seaworthy crew. Marco volunteers. So does Victor, the pigeon, along with his three pigeon friends which the book describes as "his entire flock" but I highly doubt that.

Captain Sylvia informs them that they will be traveling to an island

"We're going to a WONDERFUL island, with tall, sweet grass and short, sweet trees. When we get there, we'll eat a delectable dinner."

But the voyage is not easy. They run into terrible storms. The pigeons are lazy and don't want to raise and lower the sails. They just stay belowdecks and play checkers. The deer are worrywarts who just huddle in the bow and wait for something bad to happen. Marco is the only one with any brains. After days of this shit, everyone is discouraged and saying they wished they'd stayed home.

After days of drifting and dining on crackers, the animals were damp and cranky.

"We should have stayed in the woods," Sylvia said. "Deer aren't supposed to go to sea."

"We should have stayed in the park," added Victor. "Pigeons aren't supposed to do hard labor."

Marco eyed the deer and the pigeons. "Foxes aren't supposed to be vegetarian," he said. "Still, we must do the best we can."

Points to the author for bringing up foxes' diets! Lots of points for addressing this! And in a funny way!

Marco finds a recipe book and makes a stew.

Then he suggests looking at the charts. They do, and Marco hopes there will be other foxes where they're going.

Then they run into a pirate ship. Very amusing to me. A boar, a parrot, a raccoon, a big rat, a crocodile, a ferret, a bear, a mouse, and an owl are all dressed up in pirate gear. Slater has a pretty realistic drawing style so it is pretty amusing.

The pirates demand the Antlered ship's treasure. ("What treasure?!?!!?" I'm thinking in my head) and the pirate ship looks like a giant elephant. The deer-looking ship and the elephant-looking ship butt heads and 'fight.' Eventually the pirates leave.

They find the island.

The deer eat. The pigeons tell tales to seagulls. Marco goes off searching for foxes but he can't find any. I hope he got to eat, too! o.O

Finally, the crew gathers to watch the sunset.

"I have failed," Marco told Victor and Sylvia. "No foxes. No one to answer my questions."

He discusses the questions, and (I think) it is established that they are all friends now.

In the morning they leave, off for a new adventure. EL FIN

...

THE GOOD:

1.) The book is gorgeous. GORGEOUS. Take off the dust jacket and you'll see that the front cover is engraved with an antler/anchor and the back is engraved with an antler/helm. Open the book and you will be greeted by the Fan Brothers' stunning illustrations. STUNNING. You could frame these. The end pages on both ends are gorgeous maps. There are ways to visually explore the book - it takes time to drink in all the details. For instance, one pigeon has a wooden leg. You may notice the animals use a drawing-compass made of carved deer antler.

2.) The book gives animals names. It grates my cheese when children's books - which INSIST on using animals as MCs - name them after the animal itself. Bear, Pigeon, Mouse, and Fox are NOT names. How the heck would that work? Would you name a baby "Human?" Get out of here with that crap. Slater has the decency to name her animals MCs. Thank you, Slater.

3.) There is vocabulary you can teach and discuss with your child.
gangplank
shoal
seaworthy
delectable
belowdecks
reviving

4.) The book acknowledges the problem of a fox traveling with a bunch of herbivores. What's he going to eat? Or should I say... WHO is he going to eat? Usually authors just ignore this as if all animals are snuggle-buddies. o.O Major points to Slater for winkingly bringing it up.

THE BAD:

1.) Marco's stupid questions. Here are some examples:

Why do some songs make you happy and others make you sad?
Why don't trees ever talk?
How deep does the sun go when it sinks into the sea?
Why is water so wet?
Do islands like being alone?
Do waves look more like horses or swans?

I was just like "Shut the fuck up, Marco! Just SHUT UP!" He was driving me NUTS.

2.) At the end you're just like, "Welp. That happened." It's not very satisfying.

TL;DR - SO BEAUTIFUL. But the story is not the powerhouse it could have been.

Betsy

Take any number of picture books published in a given year. Read them all, cover to cover. Digest them. Ponder them. Then, I have no doubt, you’ll want to sort them. You’ll want to categorize them in some way. Maybe it’ll be the same rote categorizations we see all the time. Maybe you’ll get a little goofy. You may, for example, begin to notice how many books involve bespectacled mice breaking down the fourth wall, or a plethora of sentient cheese. But if you take a step back and broaden the fields a little, you can look at picture books in terms of scope. One genre that particularly entices me is the quest picture book. At anywhere between 32 and 48 pages, it would seem impossible that a picture book storyline would have the ability to send its hero on a quest. Yet time and time again, to varying degrees of success, authors and artists have sent their wayward characters off on noteworthy adventures. The latest book to slot neatly into this category is The Antlered Ship. A gorgeous epic filled with equal parts adventure and philosophy, this is one of those books that hankers to be an instant classic and comes darn well close to the mark.

It was Marco that saw the antlered ship when it arrived, lost, at his island’s harbor. Until then he had found that for all that he was bursting with questions about the world (“Why don’t trees ever talk? Why is water so wet?”) none of the other foxes on his island ever took any interest in answering them. Perhaps if he joined the ship and set forth to sail to sea he’d find an island where foxes thought the way he did. The journey, however, is not without peril. The deer that crew it are a fearful bunch and the pigeons that sign on uneasy with the amount of work involved. It is Marco who steers them out of storms and misery. It is the pigeon Victor that leads the ship through the sharpest of rocks. And it is the deer Sylvia gives the orders to fight off piratical invaders. In the end, Marco does not find what he thought he was looking for. He finds something better. He finds friends and a purpose.

So what does a quest picture book entail? Well, first and foremost you need to bond the reader to the main character. This can happen any number of ways. You might see the hero being kind to a friend, as in
Nobody Likes a Goblin by Ben Hatke. Or you might make them sympathetic in some way. In
Journey by Aaron Becker we see a girl try and fail to get the attention of her mother, father, and older sister. The child reader, regardless of whether or not they have siblings or parents of their own, can relate. Similarly, in The Antlered Ship the fox character is different from its compatriots. The other foxes aren’t mean to it or anything, but when it asks questions ranging from the mundane to the philosophical they respond with honest bafflement. He doesn’t fit in. And instantly we understand why he must leave. Next the adventure must involve travel in some way. Ships do very well in these narratives.
Three Bears in a Boat by David Soman, for example, knew this. Finally, there's the ending. Either the hero goes home, the quest over, or the quest itself is the goal. I think you'll understand which of these apply to this book.

Not every picture book makes me think long and hard about its moral but The Antlered Ship really gave me food for thought. Not initially, though. The first time I read it I found it visually stimulating but less than entirely enthralling from a storytelling perspective. Happily this feeling changed when I read the book to my small children. Suddenly I found the text improved massively when I was able to read it aloud. This proved to be most true when Marco feels that he has failed in his quest and discusses the matter with Sylvia and Victor. His goal was to find people like himself that are interested in big questions. As it turns out, Sylvia and Victor are not averse to Marco’s questions and are even willing to debate them with him. When he asks, “And what’s the best way to find a friend you can talk to?” they proffer ideas until he concludes, “… I think you make friends by asking them questions.” That’s such an interesting idea to me. It’s basically saying that friendship is largely rooted in showing interest in people outside of yourself. In moving beyond your own self-centered worldview. Not a bad lesson for a picture book, eh?

It seems funny to delay it this long, but I haven’t really said anything about the art so far, have I? This is particularly odd when you consider that for many people the art is going to be the primary draw of the book. The Fan Brothers rose to prominence when their previous book
The Night Gardener (not to be confused with the Jonathan Auxier novel of the same name) appeared on a slew of Mock Caldecott and Best Of lists. Suddenly everyone was very interested in what these Fan Brothers might do. For my part, I liked The Night Gardener perfectly well but it didn’t quite do it for me. You know that feeling you get when you know an author or an illustrator is capable of so much more than their most recent project? I knew these guys had an Antlered Ship inside somewhere. I just had to wait around long enough to see it.

And what a visual feast this puppy is too. First and foremost its publisher, Beach Lane Books, has spared no expense in its make-up. They’ve even gone so far as to spend extra money to make the book as pleasant a tactile experience as it is a visible one. Go on. Touch the cover. Feel the high caliber paper stock. I don’t mean to be beholden to blatant pandering on the part of a publisher, but combining that feel with that cover image is a rare bit of marketing genius. Then we get to the art. Where The Night Gardener relegated itself primarily to blues and blacks and grays, The Antlered Ship is a dawn and magic hour story. No sky is ever a clear baby blue. They are are rose and peach at down, gray and white in storms, deep navy and white at night, and sometimes that strange misty white you get on a day when the sky isn’t really any color at all. Watch what the Fan Brothers do with their skies as the book progresses. There’s a method to their madness here.

The delicacy of the images is also of particular note. Watching the care with which they render not just the antlered ship but also the ship of the invading pirates I was reminded of that old seafaring picture book classic,
The Island of the Skog by Steven Kellogg. That book too took an interest in sailing and small woodland creatures. Here, the meticulousness of the Fan pens and pencils is not limited to rigging and figureheads. The animals also show a great deal of loving care. The first time you officially meet Victor and his pigeon crew you get a very good look at the iridescent feathers that grace their throats. Rock pigeons are such lovely creatures, it’s nice to see them get their due. The art is also not without humor. I have spent more time than I care to mention staring at deformed pigeon feet on the streets of Manhattan, so giving a pigeon a peg leg seemed an act of mercy as well as humor. Oh. And I should note that if you’re thinking long and hard about how precisely deer and pigeons would go about raising and lowering the sails on a boat as massive as this one, then maybe this is not the book for you.

If I have any objection to the book, it is the ending. Not that the ending is bad or falls flat necessarily. It just happens to be about four pages too long. Slater actually caps off the book’s text perfectly when she writes, “There were so many questions left to answer. And so many more to ask.” The first time I read this aloud I remember giving a satisfied sigh… until I turned that page and found that inexplicably the book was still going. What valuable information is contained on those last four pages? Just the fact that the friends are, indeed, still sailing on the ship together, just as they’d discussed before. Now I know all too well that picture books are hampered considerably by page counts that they cannot shift, no matter how much they’d like to. That’s one of the reasons I like them so much. Just the same, there are workarounds. Wordless breathtaking spreads are one magnificent way of taking care of the issue. The way the book stands now, it feels like the author doesn’t trust the reader to accept that the birds, deer, and fox will continue their adventures and that we need some kind of visual proof.

Like all good adventure tales the story begins with a hero’s quest and takes that hero not to their intended destination, but to what they were actually searching for deep down all along. In this way, the adventure book is not all that different from an adult novel. Joseph Campbell would, I like to think, approve of The Antlered Ship. It is, I should note, a quiet adventure, best suited to bedtimes and one-on-one readings rather than exciting group readalouds. But for those children that are allowed to dive deep into its sweetly saturated pages, the book has the capability of sequestering its images deep into the innermost folds of their little brains. This is a book that will find its ways into their dreams for decades upon decades upon decades to come. Could a book ask for anything more?

For ages 4-7

Calista

A fox is looking for meaning in life and more than just food. He decides to go on a journey and he gets on the Antlered ship when they ask for a crew. It’s hard going at times, but friendships form and questions are asked and meals are shared. They see some amazing things.

This was a great book about how community and friendship happens and the need to see new things in life. I loved the look of the ship and it’s what got me wanting to read this. The artwork is fantastic and the story is a great adventure story.

The nephew loved all the animals and the fox. He loved the adventure and the pirates they ran into. He thought this was a pretty good book. It could have been funnier for him, but he like it and he gave this 4 stars. He would not like the big storms in a boat. He thinks there are better ways to explore.

Menia

Φοβερός χάρτης για παιδικό βιβλίο, γλυκιά ιστορία 💕

Lata

Marco the fox has many questions, but his fellow foxes aren't interested in the questions. Marco meets Sylvia the deer, a captain of a ship, and decides to join her on an ocean voyage. The voyage is tougher than they expected due to weather and pirates, but they eventually land on an island. Marco doesn't find the answers he's expecting, but finds something better, and the two continue voyaging.
The illustrations are utterly beautiful. The story is quiet, thoughtful, and concerns curiosity and friendship. And did I mention that the illustrations are gorgeous?

Rian *fire and books*

Love love love the illustrations and that this is a real *smart* kids book. It has adorable characters, was honest about what a fox would do on a ship with a bunch of herbivores (hint, he didn't eat them), and even posed a lot of questions to the reader!

My only issue is the texture of the dust jacket. Oh I can't stand that gritty feeling one iota.

Jacki

Strong art, text is middle of the road.

Ancita☆

I have said it so many times and reiterating it here too. Picture books hold so much wisdom that my mighty heart and bulbous brain seem too small to have enough of!

Fortunately, I read the copy of this book from my library online, so the illustrations really were like seamless pages of drawing and not forked in the middle as is the case with paper books. As they say, everything has its pros and cons!

Now back to the book itself. The story is of a young fox Marco who has so many questions to ask but none who can answer. "Why do trees not talk?", "How far does the sun go when it sinks into the horizon of the sea?". He is endlessly boggled with the forest and the sea but no fox is able to answer him. Upon a chance day, an antlered ship arrives on the shores of his forest and from thereon begins an adventure. Marco learns and learns and learns. But how? Read and know!

The sea and the sun and the clouds and all of the characters have so many right shades of colors to them that it is almost like watching a movie, page by page. Very very attractive. And the story more so.

Hope such gems of literature always keep finding their way into my bouquet of books.

Eva

I am currently following a class on children's literature. For this class, we had to review a picture book written in the last three years. I went to a bookshop with an extensive collection of children's literature and wandered around for about an hour - touching the covers, revisiting books from my own childyouth, looking at the illustrations. The Antlered Ship by Dashka Slater immediately stood out to me. Its cover was so incredibly beautiful and its title grabbed my attention. I decided this was the book I absolutely wanted to review. And what a delight it was! I spent a while on it, savoring every page. It made me giggle, it made me almost shed a tear... how I would love to have a little child to read this to! This is definitely a picture book to come back to, if only for the illustrations. The book does leave you with a few questions, but maybe that's not such a bad thing.

Rachel (Into a Story)

Love the illustrations SO much. The story and text were just so-so.

Lygeri

Αυτό το βιβλίο παίρνει 5 από την καρδιά μου όχι γιατί έχει την τόσο ξεχωριστή ιστορία αλλά γιατί έχει μοναδική εικονογράφιση!

Elizabeth☮

The illustrations here are beautifully done. The story is quite poignant.

This is a ship of rogue animals in search of: adventure, beauty, answers. Marco, a fox, decides the answers to his questions are out in the world. He can't be confined to his island any longer, so he boards the ship.

What the animals learn are lessons in kindness, boldness and friendship.

There are questions Marco has that my daughter and I enjoyed finding the answers to while reading the book.

Melki

A menagerie sets sail for some high seas adventure in this beautifully illustrated tale.

All the artwork is lovely, but the painting of the pigeons playing checkers really made me laugh.

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Shiloah

Gentle story. Meaningful, thoughtful Fox. Exquisite illustrations. All around lovely book.

Abigail

Marco was a fox with questions. Why didn't trees talk, he wondered. Why did some songs make you happy, when others made you sad? Finding no answers amongst his chicken-stew-obsessed fellow foxes, he signed on with a crew of deer, and set sail in their antlered ship. After adventures ranging from an encounter with pirates to navigating the dangerous Maze of Sharp Rocks, they finally came to Sweet Tree Island, where Marco hoped to find the answers he'd been looking for. But had the truth been with him all along...?

An absolutely gorgeous book, The Antlered Ship pairs an engaging adventure story by author Dashka Slater with simply beautiful illustrations by illustrating team Eric and Terry Fan. I appreciated Marco's philosophical musings, and the fact that he was so curious about the world that he felt he needed to go out and explore it. As for the visuals, having become an admirer of the Fan Brothers after reading their picture-book debut,
The Night Gardener, I had high expectations - and they were more than met! The artwork here is just lovely, whether it be a seafaring vista or a sylvan one. Marco himself is a gorgeous vulpine hero. Recommended to fellow Fan Brothers fans, and to anyone looking for engaging and beautiful new picture-book adventures.

Marjorie Ingall

Marco is a fox who lives on an island. He has all kinds of philosophical and intellectual questions about the world (why do some things make you happy and other things make you sad? why is water wet?), but the other foxes on the island do not share his questioning bent. He's lonely. So when a ship with giant antlers instead of a figurehead sails up to the island, he volunteers for the crew, hoping to find a different island with more ruminative foxes. On the journey, he befriends Sylvia, the ship's brave deer captain, and Victor, an excellent pigeon navigator. They're willing to engage with Marco's metaphysical musings. The trio discover a new island...but will Marco get the answers he's seeking? Or will he realize there are other questions?

The dreamy art is ravishing; I could stare at these hypnotic, strange but soothing pictures all day. And unlike some readers who didn't love the text, I found the story otherworldly but grounded in sweetness and the universal (I hope!) desire for connection. Quietly funny, too. And mystical, but not in a pretentious, off-putting way. I don't think this is a book for grownups masquerading as a kids' book; I think audiences of all ages can appreciate it on its own terms. One of my favorite picture books of 2017.

Bonny

The Antlered Ship is a perfect combination of lovely story and beautiful illustrations. I'm not sure what a child would think of it as my children are grown, but it's the kind of book I want to recommend to everyone I know. Sometimes I think children's books are written for adults, but this is one that I think children and grownups will love.

Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance

A fox joins a deer and pigeon crew aboard an antlered ship to seek out answers to his questions. He finds he grows to enjoy the voyage and the questions in this lovely picture book with some nice moments of tension and thoughtfulness.

Nostalgia Reader

Absolutely beautiful illustrations and a sweet story about adventuring and friendship to boot.

Sara

This book was very good because it had a good storyline and a good variety of sentence structure. I would recommend this book if you enjoy picture books.

Elif

A fox and some other animals go on a voyage to find an island. They encounter a pirate but then make it to the island and all the voyagers become friends.

Aryana Parmar

Good book!

Resh (The Book Satchel)

such a sweet book.about a fox who has many questions. friends—pigeons, deer, fox who go on adventures on a big ship. they feel discouraged, they feel they made the wrong choice, and at the end they find answers/meanings/whatever they were looking for.

What stunning illustrations too

Colona Public Library

When a fox needs answers to his questions he joins the antlered ship that is looking for a crew. Will he find the answers while he goes on an adventure?

This book is really nicely illustrated and I really really love the design of the antlered ship! This book has some nice creativity and lots of work put into it visually. I wish it was a little longer and maybe had some more story. ~Ashley

Ms. B

For me, this was a bittersweet story about making and finding your true friends. For others, it will be a story about asking questions or going on an adventure. A fox joins a crew of forest animals searching for an island with tall sweet grass and short sweet trees.
The illustrations are by the Fan brothers which means they are amazing! This is the kind of story I would love to read to a group of children to see what their interpretation of the story is.

Emily Duchon

i picked this up due to the gorgeous illustrations and ended up falling in love with the story.

marco the fox has questions about life and the world. unable to find anyone to answer them properly he boards an antlered ship with various other creatures to seek new lands and adventure. marco hopes, along the way, someone can answer his many questions.

pre school.

Katie Ruth

I adore this new book illustrated by the Fan Brothers! Everything I look for in a picturebook is wrapped up in this one--meaningful themes and and an open-ended narrative that will invite questioning and wondering from both child and adult readers. Fantastic!

Missouri Vaun

I loved this book. The main character is a curious fox named Marco. And once I discovered that the captain of the ship was a deer named Silvia, well... I was compelled to read this book. Lovely illustrations and the author has a charming sense of humor.

Yvonne O'connor

This is one LONG book for the 5-7 year old crowd. One of the Literati selections this month. Beautiful illustrations, but just too long.

Title	:	The Antlered Ship
Author	:	Dashka Slater
Rating	:
ISBN	:	-
Language	:	English
Format Type	:	Kindle , Hardcover , Paperback , Audiobook & More
Number of Pages	:	32
Publication	:	First published September 12, 2017

The Antlered Ship Reviews

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