The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau

Wow!  That's all I can say . . . WOW!  This book is spellbinding.  

First of all, it taught me about the man behind that ocean camera, Jacques Cousteau.  I remember watching him in my childhood, but, of course, I didn't know his bio.  

Author/illustrator Dan Yaccarino (c. 2009) captures the wonder that lead Cousteau into ocean exploration and transports his readers into the fanciful water-dimmed world of Oceanic life.


Oh . . . and the kids loved it too!!!

The Secret Three

Here's another read that I vividly recall from my childhood summers: The Secret Three by Mildred Myrick with drawings by Arnold Lobel (c. 1963).


The Secret Three is a wonderful story of friendship that begins when Billy and Mark find a secret message inside a bottle that washed up onto the beach. (Seriously, doesn't that alone make you want to run out to get it?!)  See if you can decode the messages as you follow along Billy and Mark's seaside, summer adventure.  And be delighted - once again - by Arnold Lobel's excellent illustrations.  He has an uncanny way of capturing that essence of feeling we associate with each season.

Oh, and did I mention that this is a good book for those early readers too?

How I Became a Pirate

Ahoy, maties!  Captain Braid-Beard needs an extra digger to help him bury his chest of treasure, and Jeremy Jacob is the man, or rather boy.  Follow Jeremy Jacob as he embarks on his precarious pirate adventure.

Parents, How I Became a Pirate (c. 2003) is a book where our local author Melinda Long was fortunate enough to score the perfect artist David Shannon to illustrate her story.  Shannon's illustrations make this story!  You're kids will love this pirate adventure as much as ours  And they may pick up some pirate lingo ("shiver me timbers", "landlubber", "scurvy dog", and "batten down the hatch") along the way.  We highly recommend this thrilling summer read!

The Summerfolk

Do you remember the book We Were Tired of Living in a House by Liesel Moak Skorpen with the imaginative 1969 illustrations by Doris Burn?  Well if you need a little refresher on a post that gets frequent hits, click here: We Were Tired of Living in a House illustrated by Doris Burn (c. 1969).  I just love the Doris Burn illustrations in that story!  The kids do too and pour over them for hours.
 
So imagine my delight in finding Doris Burn's The Summerfolk at our local used bookstore!  Then imagine my disappointment that our local library doesn't carry a copy.

Folks, I have good news:

1. You can purchase The Summerfolk written and illustrated by Doris Burn (c. 1968) off amazon.com or half.com (I am in no way gleaning any profits from these websites in passing along this information) for a mere $7.
2. I'm going to post several illustrations as well as the opening storyline to give you a taste of this delightful summer read:

Burn's story begins: Willy Potts' house was on a sand dune.  In back of the house was a swamp, but in front the sand led all the way down to the sea.  Although the house was little more than a shanty, Willy and his dad, Joe Potts, lived there both winter and summer, for Joe Potts was a fisherman.  All winter long, life seemed to go along nice and steady for Willy and Joe Potts.

next page:  But all summer long--well, that was another kettle of fish.  Every summer, strange people came from the city for a holiday beside the sea.  These strangers were called summerfolk. . . .

meet Fedderly, "a strange new breed of summerfolk"

"Have you ever been to Rosebud's Stately Wain?" asks Fedderly.

Burt Dow Deep-Water Man

Oh, goody!  We discovered another book by Robert McCloskey: Burt Dow Deep-Water Man: A Tale of the Sea in the Classic Tradition (c. 1963).  I hardly thought it could be possible!

Burt Dow Deep-Water Man reveals a master story-teller at work.  First, McCloskey uses onomatopoeia (words that mean what they sound like) to relate this tall tale.  Listen to these lines to hear the onomatopoeia:

• When Burt Dow puts out to sea in the Tidely-Idley, everybody in town knows it.  They hear him pump out all the water that has leaked in overnight, slish-cashlosh, slish-cashlosh! . . .   Then they hear him start the make-and-break engine, clackety bang! clackety bang! . . . 

• . . . The giggling gull was teetering to and fro on the tip of the tiller and tittering "Tee-he-he-hee!" now and then, in a nervous sort of way.

Then McCloskey evokes perfect rhythm while weaving his spellbinding tale.  We all know McCloskey as a brilliant illustrator.  However, I challenge you to close your eyes and listen to Burt Dow read aloud . . . you'll discover that the text can stand on its own.  Yes, it's a rare jewel that displays the craft of oral storytelling at its best

So how did Burt Dow get from here:

to here:

Well, you'll have to read this little treasure of an adventure to find out!

By-the-way, here's another title that the fellas would enjoy.

Where I Live

Hello again, readers!  Guess where I've been busy spending my time?  Check out the books from these past two posts for a BIG hint.  Hopefully, you've had time to catch up on your reading.  I have a few more terrific summer reads to share, and then I'll indulge you with a few books to ward off the first of school jitters.  Happy reading!

Where I Live another book by Frances Wolfe presents beautiful images and descriptions of the seashore.  Re-discover seaside living through a child-like viewpoint.  And unearth the fascinating perspectives of Wolfe's illustrations.

One Wish

In One Wish, Frances Wolfe begins:

On a summer's

eve, a long

time ago,

I made one

wish on the brightest star

in a twinkling

night sky.

And from the publisher:
Frances Wolfe's love of the sea is in her blood.  Her home is on the Nova Scotia shore, where her grandfather once fished, and where her family has lived for more than a century.

Of all Frances Wolfe's books, this is our family favorite!  Check it out to see why.  It's a perfect family read for this seaside visiting time of year.

The Seashore Book

Let's pretend . . . It is early morning at the seashore and it's hard to tell where the sea stops and the sky begins.  They are the same smoky gray until the mist shifts from gray to dark white, from dark white to pale purple, from pale purple to hazy blue, and then suddenly, the sun breaks through!

So begins the brilliantly descriptive narrative of a mother relating to her son what the "seashore is like."  The Seashore Book (c. 1992) reflects Charlotte Zolotow at her best, describing the shore in what Publisher's Weekly terms "tactile, vivid and musical images."  Zolotow's descriptions paint such detailed pictures that leave a day at the beach imprinted on your imagination long after the the book is closed.

Wave

Wave by Suzy Lee (c. 2008) gives credibility to the saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words."  In this case, a wordless book of 40 pages presents no need for words.  I could say a lot about how wonderful I think this book is.  However, sometimes silence speaks volumes, as my children give testimony to in the way they silently pour over the pages of Suzy Lee's masterpiece.  To further convince you, I debated about including more illustrations from Wave but came to the conclusion that it's best experienced in its panorama whole.  In closing, as the publisher so aptly articulates, step into these deceptively simple pages for a day at the sea--and a joyful story that begins and ends with a wave.

One Morning in Maine

One Morning in Maine, written and illustrated by Robert McCloskey (c. 1952), remains a quintessential example of excellent storytelling paired with exceptional artistry.  Seriously, do not let your children's childhoods slip by without reading them this classic story!  It's much more than just another book about loosing that first tooth.  One word: i-d-e-n-t-i-f-i-c-a-t-i-o-n.  Kids identify with Sal's disappointment.  I would mention that this could be a lengthy read for the younger set, yet from the age of two, my children would let me read it to them every single day if I could handle it.  It's in their top ten favorite books.  And it's one that you parents will enjoy just as much as your kids.  What's more to say?!  Except that we're all dying to visit Maine!