By Jessixa Bagley
A little beaver whose Papa is gone carves boats from driftwood and floats them out to sea, sure that any boat that doesn't wash back has reached his father.
Buckley the beaver lives with his Mama in a small house by the beach, and his Papa isn't there anymore. What he loves to do is carve little boats from the driftwood he finds, then send the best ones out on the tide, each one carrying a note for Papa. When a boat doesn't come back, Buckley decides it must have sailed all the way to his father, who he misses terribly. One evening he forgets to tuck in a note, and he runs back to Mama's desk for a scrap of paper. That's when he finds them: every boat he ever sent, saved away in her drawer. She's been walking the beach all along, gathering them up. Buckley doesn't say much, but he understands. That night he carves one more boat and floats it out, and this note reads, "For Mama."
This is a book for the youngest child on the shelf, and especially for a family where one parent is gone. It's short, soft, and hopeful, and it does one thing beautifully: it gives a small child a way to picture sending love to someone they can't reach. That's the slippery, hard thing at four or five, and the boats turn it into something you can hold in your hands. Nothing here is frightening, and nothing is spelled out too far. The quiet gift underneath is that Buckley isn't missing Papa alone. Mama is missing him too, and the story lets that show without a single heavy word.