#177 of 1001 · January 24, 2021

What if your life suddenly got upended by the intrusion of a supernatural presence? Moreover, what if, instead of remaining with you only for a brief period of time, the otherworldly entity simply stayed and stayed and stayed until it became your new normal? You’ll ponder just such a predicament in My Life with the Wave, translated and adapted by Catherine Cowan (from a short story originally written in Spanish by Octavio Paz) and illustrated by Mark Buehner. A young boy playing at the seashore befriends a sentient wave, who follows him home and takes up residence with his family. While at first this bizarre scenario appears to bring nothing but delight, the capricious swell of water soon brings on dangerous weather and dredges up horrors from the deep. Buehner’s oil and acrylic paintings vividly capture the reflective surfaces and fluid dynamics of the swirling, frothing wave. Cowan preserves much of Paz’s lyrical language, but takes great liberties with the content of the story, changing the main character from an adult to a child, modifying his relationship with the aquatic being from one of sensual longing to one of innocent play, and excising a farcical episode in which an attempt to transport the salty water in a railway drinking fountain spirals into accusations of poisoning, an arrest, and a brief prison sentence. #wave #ocean #sea #water #fish #storm #magic #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbooks #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookillustrations #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks