A colossal narrator takes younger readers on a long, essential voyage.Estimating that 80% to 90% of the world's global trade moves by ship, Schmitt assumes the voice of a (generic) gargantuan vessel piled high with "intermodal containers" to retrace a long journey-delayed by a major storm and extended by a detour around Africa when another ship blocks the Suez Canal-from (according to the dotted line on a schematic map) one unspecified port in east Asia to another in northern Europe. A scene of the ship circling a stopwatch evokes the sense of mission that rings throughout the author's terse, rhythmic narrative ("I carry goods wherever I go / helping the global economy flow"), and another startling view of the vessel steaming past two diminutive whales really brings home its sheer size. Elsewhere Dong presents flattened, stylized portraits of it and other working ships of diverse size and design, also offering frequent cutaway glimpses of what they carry, from pineapples and pumpkins to cars, clothes, and cows. Along with an expanded discussion of the challenges of the shipping trade, the backmatter includes a select list of related careers and leads to online resources. Rare human figures in the pictures are mostly brown-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)An informative peek at our global infrastructure's major lifeline. (Informational picture book. 5-8)