Caspian Finds a Friend

The book opens on a magnificent lighthouse vista as Caspian watches the waves “wondering, waiting, wishing for a friend”. His waiting turns to action when he sends off a message in a bottle, its contents initially unknown to the reader and a single-word response sends Caspian off on an ocean adventure until he finally arrives at his destination—a friend in polar bear form. The end feels almost too anticlimactic as the two immediate friends start for Caspian’s home in seeming thoughtless disregard for whatever home the polar bear once had, but this small flaw pales in comparison with the magnificence of the telling of this simple story in both prose and picture. The story itself is told smoothly in a tone simultaneously sad, hopeful and soothing with enjoyable injections of seashore terminology as Caspian’s “hopes bo[b] like a bottle on waves”, its repetition of “wondering, waiting, wishing” emphasizing to the reader the depth and duration of the little boy’s loneliness without a friend. The illustrations, however, are the true masterstroke. Spread after spread are filled with marvelous details and a masterful use of texture that creates depth and interest while still matching the softness that characterizes the book. The changing of the seasons, melding of constellations with the sea and bursting sunrise awash with pink all form striking tableaus that speak to the readers soul in an invitation to powerful emotion.