The Dog and The Sailor

While reading one of Arielle Zoelle's books the other day, I discovered Pete Jordi Wood's "The Dog and The Sailor." 

["In a world of dragons, witches and magic, reckless Ruan yearns to become a sailor and escape his humdrum life as a tailor's apprentice. However, he soon learns that sometimes we should be careful what we wish for when a journey across the ocean takes a terrible turn for the worse. Fortunately, a chance encounter with a mysterious dog steers Ruan away from danger, leading him on the adventure of his wildest dreams..."]

Arielle's character did his thesis on queer fairy tales, on how they were all straight-washed by some old-white-man. On how there probably used to be so many but straight-culture erased them and how barely a few survived (this characterization/detail was based on an article on Forbes online by Jamie Wareham). 

It's kind of like how straight-culture altered facts about queer pirates in love by saying those men/people only got married to ensure their treasure was not lost slash given to the entire crew (sure, it makes sense, but you mean to tell me not a single on of those marriages was because of love??).

ANYWAY, Pete's book was a limited run from 2020 (Amazon only had a few left when I ordered it...somehow). He researched, wrote, and illustrated this wonderful children's book for his master's thesis. The publication accompanied "The Dog and the Sailor" Exhibition at the Bodega Bijou Illustration Gallery. This story, or variants of it, were originally recored by Jens Kamp and Nikolaj Christensen in 19th century Denmark; however, the very definition of folk lore is the auditory history of storytelling, which goes back to the very beginning and the true origin is unknown.

This book was gorgeous and bright. The details popped off the screen but not in a way that distracted you from the main characters/actions. I wanted to live in this world. Plus, the story?! A little angst (okay, so a lot--there is a curse and a sea witch involved) but so much fun and magic and love. D: Their love story was so cute and just D: (yes, another one). It was short and sweet and a little kooky but so much fun!

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