Gulliver Snip by Julia Kay

Bath time is a dangerous and exciting adventure for Gulliver Snip, the little boy who sails the world in his “clipper ship that his mother called the bathtub.” With a bathtub ship and a shower curtain for a sail, Gulliver is off on a grand adventure. He is caught in a tumultuous storm that, despite his courageous efforts, floods his ship and breaks the mast. He casts off with a packing trunk for a boat and the storm sends him off on a journey to a deserted island.

Gulliver has the blessing of imagination without awareness of the calamity he is causing to the house. Every piece of furniture is a part of his great adventure, every moment holds the thrill of imminent danger. In the end his mother rescues him from peril and asks him if he was responsible for the mess. The bathroom is flooded, the shower curtain torn and the lamp broken, but she patiently puts him to bed where he dreams of tomorrow’s adventures in his bathtub clipper ship.

The illustrations are colorful and fanciful. Images from Gulliver’s imagination are playfully juxtaposed with images of the chaos he is wreaking in the home, eliciting some giggles from Little Lia.

Lia (age 4) says: “It’s about that the boy climbs up the shower rod and puts his foot out and he is pretending his bathtub is the ship. He’s in the suitcase and wearing the pan on his head and pretending the chair is the island. He holds on to the lamp and then breaks it and the mama is so upset and asks if Gulliver did it. He said ‘Yes, sorry.’ He was grumpy and didn’t want his hair dried. And he fell asleep and dreamed about the moon and the ship was happy and the ground had water on it. And the bathtub floated away.”

She liked when he was grumpy and didn’t want his hair dried. She didn’t like that the mom was mad at him. Lia says kids should read this book.