Model ships: Who hasn't wondered if they're seaworthy? Mouse Mabel wants to know what it would be like to actually captain a model ship in The Ship in the Window, a picture book with all the makings of a classic from Travis Jonker (Blue Floats Away) and Caldecott Medal winner Matthew Cordell (Leeva at Last). In fact, Mabel does more than just wonder.
Mabel lives in a lakeside cabin with "the man," who has built a model ship, and "the boy" (presumably his son), who wasn't invited to participate in the ship's construction. Mabel has little hope of helming the ship: "If the man wouldn't even allow the boy to touch the ship, why would he let a mouse?" But one windy night, she decides not to wait for permission: "It was incredibly risky, but knowing this might be her only chance, she had to find out."
The Ship in the Window succeeds as both an adventure--readers should expect choppy waters for Mabel and heroism from the boy--and a parable about chasing a dream and (attention, adult readers) letting go of controlling tendencies and material possessions. Sandwiching the seafaring drama is an implicit story about the boy's longing to join in the man's model-building hobby; by book's end, they've become collaborators. Cordell inscribes characters' every emotion on their faces in his careful, pen-and-ink-like illustrations. The art often has a sepia cast suited to a story that seems to, but doesn't have to, take place in an earlier time. --Nell Beram, freelance writer and YA author