Picture Books: elementary level; some with higher reading level text

Ardizzone, Edward. Tim and Lucy Go to Sea. London: Francis Lincoln Children’s Books, 2006. One of a series about Tim, who goes to sea and has many adventures.

Ardizzone, Edward. Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain. London: Francis Lincoln Children’s Books, 2006. Another in the series about Tim.

Arro, Lena and Catarina Kruusval. By Geezers and Galoshes! New York: R&S Books, 2000. A model ship comes to life for a little boy and his great-uncles.

Berleth, Richard. Mary Patten’s Voyage. Morton Grove, Illinois: Albert Whitman & Company, 1994. A sailor recalls how Mary Patten, the 18 year old wife of Captain Joshua Patten, took charge of the clipper ship Neptune’s Car during a race from New York to San Francisco in 1856.

Borden, Louise. Sea Clocks: the Story of Longitude. New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2004. The story of John Harrison, who invented the first accurate chronometer, which enabled sailing ships to determine their longitude. In 1773 he won a prize from the English Parliament for his invention.

Coote, Roger. The Sailor through History. New York: Thompson Learning, 1993. Life of the sailor, from Polynesia to the present day.

Kalman, Bobbi. Nicola’s Floating Home. New York: Crabtree Publishing Company, 1995. The story of a contemporary family living aboard a sailboat.

Kirk, Shoshanna. T is for Tugboat: Navigating the Seas from A to Z. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2008. A wonderfully illustrated book of nautical vocabulary. The inner covers have good signal flag alphabet illustrations.

Lasky, Kathryn. Born in the Breezes: the Seafaring Life of Joshua Slocum. New York: Orchard Books, 2001. A short chapter book with beautiful illustrations, this tells the story of Joshua Slocum and his sail around the world in Spray, a rebuilt sloop, as well as his earlier life as a sea captain. One of his vessels was the ship B. Aymar, built in Searsport, Maine.

Parker, Neal Evan. Captain Annabel. Camden, Maine: Downeast Books, 2004. Annabel, a little girl in contemporary times, grows up to be a sea captain.

Rand, Gloria. Sailing Home: The Story of a Childhood at Sea. New York: North-South Books, 2001.

Based on the true story of a real family’s life aboard a four-masted sailing bark in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This is a great children’s story with beautiful illustrations, and it includes real photos at the end.