![]() ![]() ![]() Astrella's (The Desert Alphabet Book) acrylics on airbrushed paper take on an almost photographic quality. Ryan's (Amelia and Eleanor Go for a Ride Esperanza Rising) descriptions of the seaside are strongest when she sticks to concrete examples of the child's experience: the look of "amber seaweed,/ speckled sand,/ bubbly waves that kiss the land" and the feel of "squishy,/ sandy,/ soggy ground,/ slippery seaweed that wraps around." Her metaphors, on the other hand, sometimes become abstract ("I hear the ocean,/ a lion's roar,/ crashing rumors/ toward the shore"). ![]() It may take repeated readings for youngsters to understand that the "five of me" refers to the girl's five senses-despite the bold type for words like "hear" and "sounds" (though, curiously, in the first verse, "I see the ocean,/ gray, green, blue." the word "see" is not in bold). "Hello, ocean,/ my old best friend./ I'm here,/ with the five of me, again!" read the opening lines, but only four figures appear on the page. This rhyming picture book about the pleasures of a day at the beach gets off to a rocky start. ![]()
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