We Live on a Boat by Dave Petzold | Book Review
We Live on a Boat by Dave Petzold is a charming picture book that gives children a glimpse into family life on the sea through a story of sailing, wildlife and adventure.
Review by Lisa Bachmayer
My daughters, aged 7 and 4, were immediately drawn into the story, with my eldest commenting that she didn’t realise people can live on boats before we read it.
Both girls loved imagining themselves as the children on the boat, while the family’s pet iguana (Salad) and the illustrated bird and sea life were instant favourites.
As a parent, I loved how the book appealed to both my daughters, despite the age gap, how they interacted with it, and how wonderfully it captures life on the sea in different ways.
The onomatopoeic language captures the sounds (“kank-kank-kank-kank” goes the anchor), the text describes the experience through a child’s eye, and the pictures give us a beautiful visual deep dive on life at sea.
The vibrant, simple illustrations wonderfully compliment the story and are full of extra little details, making it fun to count sea creatures and discover something new each time we turned the page.
The book also sparked plenty of conversation, with questions like “What’s a jib?” and comments about how amazing it would be to surf with dolphins.
My eldest also noticed similarities to We Live in a Bus, recognising the familiar storytelling style and use of sound words from Dave Petzold’s earlier book.
One of her favourite illustrations showed the children’s bedroom with a hatch above the bed, imagining they could lie there and watch the stars, even while it was raining outside.
My favourite part was the three double-page spreads for one sentence – “We look above us…below us…and all around us” – and how the accompanying images added so much rich detail to the text and experience of life at sea.
A week after our first reading, I read it to Miss 4 another three times in a row on her request, eventually delaying the fourth request until bedtime.
We Live on a Boat offers a lovely insight into a different way of life while celebrating the simple things children everywhere enjoy, like family adventures, animals and exploring the world around them.
Miss 7 gave it “infinity stars” and said her favourite part was “everything”, while Miss 4 gave it “a billion billion billion…70 stars!” and loved counting the sea life.
I can genuinely say I love this one as much as the children and am happy to oblige repeated reading requests (within reason!).
If you want to give your kids a glimpse of a life a little less ordinary, We Live on a Boat is a delightful picture book that will quickly become a family favourite.
Title: We Live on a Boat
Author and illustrator: Dave Petzold
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Recommended age group: 3-8 year olds
For more information and all enquiries please visit the Thames & Hudson website.
At Play & Go Adelaide we make every effort to provide accurate information to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication. We recommend confirming times, dates and details directly before making any plans as details may be subject to change.
As per all our Play & Go reviews, this is not a sponsored post and our review is done completely independently.
SUBSCRIBE
Follow Play & Go Adelaide on Facebook and Instagram
Want to get all the latest events and activities straight to your inbox?
Subscribe to our weekly email newsletter below to keep up to date with our latest posts and find out all the best events & activities for Adelaide families. Newsletters are only sent once a week, and you may sometimes get a special offer exclusively for our subscribers only!
