This is a magical tale – which should be on all parents’ (and grandparents’!) books list as a classic story of fantasy sailing for children.
It centres around a boy, a keen sailor, who takes his gaff-rigged cabin boat out in all weathers, risking all to be thought of as the best sailor of his little home port. One night he sails out and gets caught out in a storm. When he wakes up he’s stranded on the beach of a mystery island. Exploring, he sees yachts sailing through the air and determines to learn this new kind of navigation.
Befriended and given a new set of special sails, he masters the art and sails for home. He’s certain that now that once back home he’ll be regarded as the best sailor who ever lived, but his hubris gets the better of him and he crashes the boat. We learn this story from the beginning of the book as we are introduced to an old man with a limp, sitting by a wrecked yacht, high above a typical west country harbour stranded on the cliffs, and so who is the man? Yes, you guessed. 
This book, re-released for its 30th anniversary in 2013, is gorgeously illustrated and sparsely narrated by a master of the craft. You’ll love finding any excuse to read it to children… and wishing wistfully, that it was all true. DH
£12, 32pp, hardback, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013
