Harbor: An Exciting Visual Adventure Picture Book About Tugboats, Ferries, and Action for Children

by Donald Crews

All the color and action of liners, tankers, tugs, barges, ferryboats, and fireboats in a harbor are presented in this exciting visual adventure. "Harbor is a picture book, and a great one at that. Every library will want it."--School Library Journal

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Transport, Juvenile, Nonfiction

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Donald Crews (born August 30, 1938) is an American illustrator and writer of children's picture books. In 2015, the American Library Association (ALA) honored him with the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, recognizing his lasting contribution to children's literature. Common subjects of his include modern technology (especially travel vehicles), and childhood memories. His stories often include few humans.

Two of his works were runners-up, or Caldecott Honor Books, for the ALA's annual award for picture book illustration, the Caldecott Medal.

Donald Crews was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1938. He had an older brother, Asa who became Beth Israel Hospital's first African-American intern, and two sisters. His mother worked as a seamstress, and his father worked at the railroad, and several other odd jobs. For the summers he would travel down to rural Florida to stay with his grandmother, who he called "Bigmama". The difference between the big city and the farm caused him to create two, massively different types of art later on in his life.

From a young age, his talent for drawing was encouraged by his family and his teachers. When he got into high school, one of his teachers became a mentor to him, and personally made sure that he got into art school.

He graduated from Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City, and married another graduate, graphic artist Ann Jonas.

Crews was drafted into the army in 1963, and sent to Frankfurt, Germany. Their first daughter, Nina was born in Germany, and their second was born a year later in New York. Nina is also an award-winning children's book author.

While in Germany, he worked on several pieces for his portfolio, including the book We Read: A to Z (1967). After several suggestions from friends, he submitted it, and it was published by Harper & Row (now HarperCollins). The book relied on abstract ideas, rather than the clichés that were usually associated with ABC books. One classic example is the entry for the letter C: "Cc, corner: where the yellow is" is illustrated with a yellow square in the far corner of a red page in the book.

He created several other books over the next few years, but it was 1978's Freight Train that won him a Caldecott Honor and the respect of other artists in the field. He won another Caldecott Honor the next year for Truck. Several other transportation themed books followed, such as School Bus (1984), Flying (1986), and Sail Away (1995). His memories from his summers in Florida first appeared in Bigmama's and later in Shortcut. These stories are vastly different from his previous works, in that they focus on humans, and tell a more linear story.

Crews and his wife currently live in the state of New York in an old, restored farmhouse overlooking the Hudson River and the Catskill Mountains.

Reviews

[Jo Oehrlein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reminds me of a Richard Scarry book, but not quite as much activity on each page.

It shows a busy harbor, with a few words per page.

There are silhouettes of the various boats/ships/tugs on the last page. That would make a fun "can you find" game with little ones.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not much of a story with this one, like many of Donald Crews books, but a gem of a book. My library is in Anacortes, Washington, a beautiful town surrounded by water and boats. I'll be adding this to the collection even though it's an older title.

[Miss Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

A toddler and up book about the vehicles present in a boat harbor. simple and easy to follow.

[Heidi Burkhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous picture book for young children who enjoy seeing river traffic. I liked it so well that I purchased a copy for my four year old grandson.

[Evan · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very interesting book for those interested in the various types of ships that frequent a harbor, as well as some of the structures integral to one. One interesting aspect of this picture book for children is the dedication by the author/illustrator, Donald Crews, to the women in his life. He proceeds to honor them by using their names as the names of the ships that populate the book's pages. It ends with an easy-to-read graphic labeling the various types of vessels that are in the book.

I read this book in the post office while waiting to mail a letter

[Ashley Stone]

This story is just all about different types of boats and equipment you would see in an ocean harbor. It has plenty of pictures on each page to aid it in describing each one. I would use this one with a toddler for the pictures. I’m not sure a toddler would care about the names of the boats; they just know that maybe they like to play with boats.

[Kit · Rating 3 out of 5]

I still think that Freight Train is his best work. And I really wish that instead of "train shapes" at the back of the book, it was pictures. It's really hard to tell the differences between the different kinds of boats.

[Mandy E · Rating 3 out of 5]

The babes love most Donald Crews books, especially Truck, which they ask for nearly every night (all other nights being taken up by repeat readings of Freight Train), but found this book about boats only mildly interesting.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The pictures are quite nice. The text is very simple and just average.

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read at Drop-In Story Time at the Tenley library on 9/6/13: http://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com/...

[Alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great vocabulary words!

[Little Champs]

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