Starred Review ALA Booklist (Thu Feb 01 00:00:00 CST 2007)

Starred Review Lightships oating lighthouses re retired in 1983, but they live on in Floca's handsome picture book, which uses simple words and repeated phrases to emphasize the vessels' purpose and uniqueness as well as their day-to-day operation. "Here is a ship that holds her place," begins the text, which takes children on a sensory tour of the Ambrose, complete with the slapping of the waves on the hull, the rocking motion of the ship, the smell of the sea and of fuel, and one climactic blast that sends the ship's cat leaping straight up into the air e sounding of the foghorn. Meanwhile, the ink-and-watercolor illustrations offer close-ups of the crew at work as well as wide, double-page scenes of passing ships (including the SS Ardizzone). Varied in composition and perspective, the art shows the little ship inside and out, in summer and winter, in calm and stormy weather. Some pictures include elements of humor, while other scenes are notable for their quiet beauty. Floca explains in an informative note that before it was possible to build platforms in deep water, lightships served as floating lighthouses, using powerful lights and blaring foghorns to signal other ships. From the endpapers, showing a cutaway view of the ship, to the final phrase, "the lightship holds her place," this handsome book respects both its subject and its audience.

Starred Review for Publishers Weekly

With straightforward, compelling prose and crisply detailed narrative ink drawings, Floca (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">The Racecar Alphabet) creates an engrossing portrayal of a now-vanished nautical practice (according to a closing author's note). "Here is a ship that holds her place," he begins, with a phrase that becomes the basis of an improvised refrain (e.g., "The lightship holds her one sure spot"). Thus he introduces the fictional lightship <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Ambrose and her nine-man crew. Floca follows the men and their marmalade cat mascot during the mundane tasks and sometimes-dramatic occurrences of daily life (a too-close-for-comfort encounter with a big tanker elicits a salty "#@*%&!" from the crew). In the final pages, a fog rolls in (as the cat creeps across the deck, for Carl Sandburg's fans), allowing the <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Ambrose to show off her <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">raison d'être. She flashes her beacon and sounds her horn (with a mighty "<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">beeooh," at which the feline visibly shakes) to "mark the way" for other ships "past rocks and shoals,/ past reefs and wrecks,/ past danger." Youngsters who are mesmerized by "how things work" books will want to add this one to their shelves, but even landlubbers may well embrace this tribute to steadfast duty on the high seas. Ages 4-7. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Mar.)

School Library Journal Starred Review

K-Gr 2-Lightships were anchored where lighthouses could not be built. They protected our ocean harbors as well as points along the Great Lakes. The last one was decommissioned in 1983, so this fascinating picture book is a piece of nautical history. Floca's watercolor drawings depict daily life aboard one of these vessels, cooking, sleeping, working, all the while rolling with the rhythm of the waves. There were many hazards involved. Big ships came too close, anchors lost their mooring, and weather caused many problems. But when the fog rolled in, the lightship sprang into action. Lights flashed and horns sounded, allowing ship traffic to make it "through fog and night, past rocks and shoals, past reefs and wrecks, past danger." The drawings are very detailed. Some pages are collages of small scenes. Many are full spreads. The sailors' facial expressions are amusing to watch, and the resident cat appears on almost every page. The front and back endpapers show a cutaway view of one of the vessels. This fascinating, little-known slice of history should prove interesting to every child who loves big boats.-Ieva Bates, Ann Arbor District Library, MI Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

Horn Book (Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2007)

Unlike other ships, the job of a lightship is to hold its place at sea. Floca skillfully details the crew, equipment, and routine of a lightship. Watercolor-and-ink illustrations gracefully depict the beauty of the ocean as well as the vessels the lightship protects. Endpapers include a diagram; an author's note explains that the last U.S. lightship was retired in 1983.

Kirkus Reviews

Floca creates both suspense and poetry in this tribute to the anchored lightships that once warned ships away from hazards on the North American coast. Beginning with, "Here is a ship that holds her place," he introduces viewers to a crew of nine, plus a cat, then shows that crew performing routine tasks both topside and down below as they wait, but for what? When the weather worsens, that question is answered; on come the bright lamp and the deafening foghorn: "Then other ships sail safely, / because the lightship marks the way / through fog and night, / past rocks and shoals, / past reefs and wrecks, / past danger." Using the Ambrose, a New York museum ship, as his model, the author presents an array of cutaways, views from above, glimpses of the engine room, john and kitchen, as well as showing the steadfast vessel floating on glassy seas and tossed by waves. Together, the pictures and the brief, measured text lend these utilitarian, no-longer-active vessels a heroic aspect that will resonate with all young fans of ships and the sea. (afterword) (Picture book/nonfiction. 4-7)