This Is the Ocean - Hardcover

Kersten Hamilton is the author of many books, including The Butterfly Book: A Kid's Guide to Attracting, Raising, and Keeping Butterflies and Natalie Jean and the Haints' Parade. She lives in New Mexico.

Lorianne Siomades is the author and illustrator of A Place to Bloom, My Box of Color, and Kangaroo and Cricket. She also has illustrated perennial favorites The Itsy Bitsy Spider and Three little Kittens. Ms. Siomades lives in Houston, Texas.

Ages 4-7. The life cycle of water is beautifully presented in this rhyming book for young audiences. Beginning with the ocean, which is "always filled up from shore to shore like a briny cup," and moving through to the rivers that eventually empty back into it, water's journey is celebrated with colorful illustrations of the many plants and creatures that benefit along the way. The sun "shines hot and dry, and raises a mist from the sea to the sky." Next "clouds like galleons with holds full of rain / set sail on the wind over the plain." Moving over the mountains and onto the grassland, they pour rain down "on the thirsty land, [cutting] a path through the rocks and sand." A feast for the eyes, Siomades gorgeous, three-dimensional textured-paper collages enhance the easy poetic handling of the subject. A great crowd pleaser for read-alouds, this will open up discussion not only about the water cycle but also about the techniques used in creating the book's unusual art. Helen Rosenberg
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