A history of the development and uses of boats, ships, and rafts, from birch-bark canoes to luxury liners.

Rhyming text introduces a variety of ships and boats as they cross lakes, seas, and rivers with cargoes of merchandise or people.

Illustrations and rhyming text celebrate different kinds of boats and what they can do.

"Lily the sailboat is small but sturdy, in a harbor full of enormous cargo ships, speedy fishing vessels, and bossy tugboats...Out on the lake, the tall ships are coming! To pass from the harbor to the lake, Lily must blow her horn and ask the lift bridge to rise...Finally, Lily slips under just before the bridge goes down, her sails fluttering with excitement as she spies the majestic barquentine, schooner, and other grand old ships heading toward...

In rhyming text the reader is introduced to all the different kinds of boats floating on rivers, lakes, oceans, and ponds.

A boy and a bear go to sea, equipped with a suitcase, a comic book and a ukulele, for a short trip but soon their boat encounters "unforeseeable anomalies," strange storms, a terrifying sea monster, and the rank remains of The Very Last Sandwich.

Salty the dog helps his master build a sailboat.

When a woman's poodle disappears during a boat ride around the city, Cam uses her photographic memory to solve the mystery.