HOW JACK LOST TIME

From Canada, a picture book, originally published in French, for older readers that tells a story of decisions made and the consequences thereof.

Jack, a grizzled sea captain, lives on his boat, even planting a garden on it, because he is obsessed with finding his son, Julos. On a father-son outing years ago, Julos disappeared, and Jack last saw him in the jaws of a distinctively scarred gray whale. Torn by grief and rage, Jack made the decision not to go home to his waiting wife until he could track down the whale. Despite, or perhaps because of, these allusions to Moby-Dick and the biblical Jonah story, this tale fails to reach their depths. Years have passed, and Jack has searched, turning into a “mean, dark” man. When he finally does find the whale, he comes face to face with his reckoning. It’s a grim, unrequited story of loss, and it seems more geared to adult sensibilities than young readers’. Poetically inclined middle graders and young teens may revel in the lyrical, often beautiful narrative, although it occasionally comes off as labored. Coté-Lacroix’s spare illustrations are in a subdued palette, mostly shades of gray and brown. Some aspects are simply sketched in rather than filled in with color, and this gives the illustrations an alluring insubstantiality that matches the shifting, ephemeral quality of the story. All characters present White.

A grim tale of loss that may itself be lost on young readers.