From Leah Polacco

In the prelude to Boat Ride with Lillian Two Blossom Patricia Polacco wrote, "One day when my brother and I were taking a walk with my father, he told us about the boat ride that he and his sister Mabel had had with Lillian Two Blossom many years before. Knowing that we were dreamers, he took us to Kalasha Pond. The old boat was still there, just where it had been when he was little."
William was fishing at Kalasha Pond when little Mabel began to ask him questions, such as, "what makes it rain" and "where does the wind come from?" Suddenly from out of the woods where she lives, appears an old Indian lady named Lillian Two Blossom. "Take me out in that boat, and I’ll tell ya," she says to the children.
And so the adventure begins! When the boat nears the center of the pond, it lifts out of the water and sails into the sky. Now a younger woman again, Lillian directs the children through the heavens, pointing out to them the "great spirit fish" that cause the rain, "unseen wolves" who create wind, and the "polar-bear spirit" who carries the moon, to name a few.
At the end of a very adventurous boat ride, quite unlike any the children have experienced, Will asks Lillian where they had just been. "On a boat ride," she answers, and disappears.
Boat Ride with Lillian Two Blossoms, one of Patricia Polacco’s favorite Michigan stories, is a tale of magic and adventure, not only for children who dream, but for adults who long for the chance to be a kid again.

"The brief story has a magical feeling with a sudden surprise that will capture listeners, and pictures large and colorful enough to share with a group."

-School Library Journal

". . .this lovely mix of myth and realism gives a lazy summer day a shot of fantasy. The pages are awash in colorful, vibrant images; this encounter with Lillian is well worth repeating."

-Publishers Weekly

 

"An entertaining variation on familiar 'why' stories; a gracious tribute to rural Michigan a few decades ago." -Kirkus Reviews