Zolotow, C. (1992). The Seashore Book. HarperCollins.
In the picture book The Seashore Book, written by Charlotte Zolotow and illustrated with paintings by Wendell Minor, the story starts out with a little boy at home with his mother in the evening as the sun sets on the mountain behind their tidy white washed house with welcoming lighting seeping through the windows. The boy asks the question, "What is the seashore like?" as the first line of the book, and the mother begins to describe it to him, since he's never been there and only knows of the mountains.
The book continues with the mother explaining and describing, and the illustrations that accompany each page portray what she is describing, with the little boy incorporated in the pictures, echoing what he must be imagining in his head while the descriptions his mother is giving unfold for him. The paintings of gouache and watercolors are realistic in tone, depicting the nature, animals, surf, sand, and skies that surround him in his visualizations that his mother is "painting" for him, helping something so foreign to him come alive. It's an interesting side note that one of the three places that the illustrator enjoys spending time painting the seashore is on the Outer Banks in North Carolina, or "the beach" as locals around here in Williamsburg refer to it.
The mother's descriptions help him to not only see the scene, but smell, feel, and hear it as well. It she describes what it would be like to be at the beach for the day, and she describes how the day changes as the sun comes up, then is later overhead in the noon heat, and later on begins to set. Zolotow's prose is lyrical and inviting, and the book invites itself to be a favorite before bedtime, with a calming, peaceful effect.
There is so much to admire about the use of language to describe in this book. A few of my favorite descriptive lines are:
"The cold water makes your skin feel like peppermint, and you are tired."
Describing the noonday sun:
"...it feels warm as a big soft cat covering you, taking away the chill of the waves."
The book continues with the mother explaining and describing, and the illustrations that accompany each page portray what she is describing, with the little boy incorporated in the pictures, echoing what he must be imagining in his head while the descriptions his mother is giving unfold for him. The paintings of gouache and watercolors are realistic in tone, depicting the nature, animals, surf, sand, and skies that surround him in his visualizations that his mother is "painting" for him, helping something so foreign to him come alive. It's an interesting side note that one of the three places that the illustrator enjoys spending time painting the seashore is on the Outer Banks in North Carolina, or "the beach" as locals around here in Williamsburg refer to it.
The mother's descriptions help him to not only see the scene, but smell, feel, and hear it as well. It she describes what it would be like to be at the beach for the day, and she describes how the day changes as the sun comes up, then is later overhead in the noon heat, and later on begins to set. Zolotow's prose is lyrical and inviting, and the book invites itself to be a favorite before bedtime, with a calming, peaceful effect.
There is so much to admire about the use of language to describe in this book. A few of my favorite descriptive lines are:
"The cold water makes your skin feel like peppermint, and you are tired."
Describing the noonday sun:
"...it feels warm as a big soft cat covering you, taking away the chill of the waves."
Describing the lighthouse in the evening:
"Outside, the lighthouse is flashing
golden gleam on
golden gleam gone."
This book lends itself well to lessons on visualizing, especially to have students only hear it the first time through, with an additional reading or a showing of illustrations after the first reading. Predicting is intertwined with that practice of visualization, making good guesses about what is in the picture, based on what what specifically stated, and with the use of inference, what could also be in the picture while they are not seeing it. This book is a great teaching tool as well as a bedtime treat between two loved ones!
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