Review by New York Times Review
Living alone in a "dinky" lighthouse on a tiny island, little Pixie Picklespeare is understandably bored. But her luck changes when Beachy, a gigantic blue whale, washes ashore. They ride waves and swim in caves. Too bad he splits at summer's end ("He had to migrate once a year/ to be with other whales," of course). Staake ("The Red Lemon") serves up easy rhymes and bright digital art like a custard cone with rainbow sprinkles, and a sunny final twist: Next year, Beachy comes back. PINNY IN SUMMER By Joanne Schwartz. Illustrated by Isabelle Malenfant. 32pp. Groundwood/House of Anansi. $16.95. (Early chapter book; ages 4 to 7) A late summer day near the ocean, a smiling girl who hums as she looks for "a special kind of rock" to make a wish on: From this lovely opening through four simple chapters, "Pinny in Summer" sets an idyllic mood. Pinny seems wonderfully plucked out of time. Parent-free, she picks blueberries, takes walks, makes a cake, hosts a party and cleverly handles a mischievous seagull's incursions. Malenfant's adorable, windswept watercolors add even more charm to each page. WAITING FOR HIGH TIDE Written and illustrated by Nikki McClure. 48 pp. Abrams. $19.95. (Picture book; ages 5 to 7) It's six hours from low tide to high tide, and the narrator of the latest paper-cut marvel from McClure ("Mama, Is It Summer Yet?") is impatient. Her family is building a raft. She roams the beach collecting cool stuff and checking out barnacles. The raft gets done, but there's more waiting before they can push off. Finally, they float away and jump in the water "again and again and again." Heaven! There's also info on checking the tides in Washington State, and a funny bit about safely using a hatchet. MR. HULOT AT THE BEACH Written and illustrated by David Merveille. 32 pp. NorthSouth. $18.95. (Picture book; ages 4 and up) Evoking the elegant, pratfall-powered world of silent film comedy, this droll wordless book continues the story begun in Merveille's "Hello, Mr. Hulot." This time, the beloved character originated on-screen by Jacques Tati spends a less-than-restful day by the sea, pipe firmly in mouth and dressed to the nines. There's a showdown with a folding chair, a mishap involving a dog, a shoe gone into the water and an ongoing attempt to read a newspaper, all conveyed in smooth, subtle black and white. SEA CHANGE Written and illustrated by Frank Viva. 115 pp. Toon Books. $18.95. (Middle grade; ages 8 to 12) Viva's transporting first novel (after picture books including "Along a Long Road") weaves drawings and playful typography through the story of 12-year-old Eliot Dionisi, bummed at being sent to relatives in Nova Scotia for a no-frills summer of lobster trapping and cod-jigging. The kids are tough, and their parents even rougher: The girl he likes has worrisome bruises. But he reads, makes friends, has a first kiss, explores a lighthouse, and discovers a well of compassion and courage in himself. ONLINE An expanded visual presentation of this week's column at nytimes.com/books.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [July 10, 2016]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* While waiting for high tide, Mama, Papa, and Grandma help a young boy build a raft from logs and poles washed up on the mudflats along the beach. A detailed page shows miscellaneous flotsam stranded by the outgoing tide: four clamshells, a bedraggled heron wing feather, and, a true score, pink sunglasses with one lens missing. Tough-shelled barnacles crackle and make a squizzling sound, gulls squawk, clams feed on plankton in the rising water, and the boy's family shares a picnic. The finished raft floats! Tied securely to an anchor, it's now a diving platform, and the family jumps off in giant splashes and swims to shore and back, again and again, as the rosy sunglasses drift into the sea and sink to the bottom. McClure's distinctive artwork intricate black paper cut-outs and fountain pen has never been richer. The simple palette of black, white, and blue, accented with the occasional pink (the sunglasses, the heron's long legs, the gulls' feet), is stunning. Children will love searching for the marine animals and detritus. Delicately penned endpapers illustrate the steps in raft-building and some shore creatures. A celebration of the natural beauty of a summer's day on the Olympic Coast.--Gepson, Lolly Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In contrast to the economy of some of her earlier creations, McClure (In) is lavish with words and images in a story that is a worthy heir to Robert McCloskey's work. The boy who narrates sits beside a tidal pool-it's the Salish Sea, the afterword explains, off Olympia, Wash. He wants to swim, but it's low tide: "It seems like I spend every day all hot summer long waiting for the water to creep back over the mud." His family begins work on a raft of logs. On a beachcombing expedition, the boy turns up "a true score-sunglasses with one lens gone and the other covered with barnacles. Now I have Barnacle Vision!" In McClure's meticulously executed cut-paper illustrations, barnacles carpet the rocks, and birds dive and swoop. As the raft progresses, the boy is allowed to handle a hatchet to notch the logs. After the raft is launched, the family swims back to land in their clothes in a moment of joyous anarchy. The sense of place is so rich that it seems possible to smell the air and hear the gulls. Ages 5-7. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 4-"I can see everything on this beach.." The child protagonist of McClure's marvelous picture book shows readers exactly how much there is to see while waiting for the tide to come in. From the soaring seagull to a broken pair of sunglasses to "all the life in the mud too small to see or fathom," the child chronicles the treasures to be found by those who are willing to look. The work of this particular turn of tide is to lash together logs, poles, and planks to make a raft. Mother, father, and grandmother work alongside the hatchet-wielding child and then leap again and again into the water, a reward for a long, patient day of work and observation. McClure's cut-paper images are at once sweeping in their scale and extraordinary in their detail. In one wordless spread, the family rests and eats lunch, a seaplane takes off, gulls swoop down on clams, and a heron stands in the shallow water, waiting for its lunch. A page turn brings viewers underwater to a close-up on the heron's single leg, surrounded by barnacles, plankton, crabs, and fish. This book shares more in length and complexity of text with To Market to Market (Abrams, 2011) than McClure's more recent books for younger audiences. It would make a wonderful West Coast companion to Robert McCloskey's One Morning in Maine. VERDICT A splendid seaside tour worth poring over. For general picture book collections as well as curriculum units on natural science.-Jennifer Costa, Cambridge Public Library, MA © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
