Paddle-to-the-Sea by Holling Clancy Holling (1941, 1969) is Caldecott honor book that reads like historical fiction. The 1989 publication is a large paper back with each page of text labeled as a chapter. There's a corresponding full page color illustration as well black and white pictorial annotations for each chapter. Twenty-seven such chapters describe the journey of a wood carving. Carved by a young boy in the Canadian wilderness “it looked like his father‘s big birchbark loaded with packs and supplies for the journey. Underneath with a tin rotor to keep it head forward, and a lump of lead for ballast. This would keep the canoe low in the water, and turn it right side up after an upset. An Indian figure knelt just back of the middle, grasping a paddle. And along the bottom were carved these words: please put me back in water I AM PADDLE TO THE SEA.” The author takes us on a tour of brooks and ponds, rapids, industrialization, marsh, locks, and more. Surprisingly, we feel for this little wooden carving as it encounters both dangers and helping hands. The final pages have a fall color map of Paddle's journey from "The cabin near lake Nipigon through the great lakes to the sea."
Rebecca Metherel has a Paddle-to-the-Sea Blank Map. ESL and SPED Behavior Specialists have Reading Rockets Pack: Paddle-to-the-Sea in English Spanish. Paul Rheaume has a Word Search Puzzle.
