#369 of 1001 · August 4, 2021

Did you go to the beach as a child? Was it a sandy beach or a rocky beach? Was the water warm or cold? Were the waves low or high? Did you enter gradually or plunge in all at once? All of these questions and more are synthesized in the striking visual world of the wordless Wave by @suzyleebooks. A young girl visits the beach with her mother. As a flock of curious seagulls looks on, she inches up to the water’s edge, scampers back from an oncoming wave, ventures forward again, and finally begins to dance and splash in the shallows. Finally, a colossal breaker rises up and crashes over her. Dazed, she sits on the wet sand for a moment but soon amuses herself by gathering shells, sea stars, and other things washed ashore by the mighty surf. All too soon, it is time to leave. The girl departs with her mother; as she looks back over her shoulder at the ocean, she smiles and gives one final wave. Lee carefully crafts each design element of the book to support her visual storytelling. The girl and the sea serve as two main characters engaged in an animated back-and-forth confrontation, the lolling waves suggesting a staunch force opposing the girl’s defiant, boisterous energy. The wide horizontal layout of the book enhances this stark contrast. The gutter (or the vertical seam between the two open pages) represents both a physical barrier (the water’s edge) and an emotional barrier (her own anxiety) for the girl to traverse. Eventually, she crosses to the ocean’s side, and the ocean crosses to her side, drenching everything. From then on, the water’s deep, rich cyan (the only hue present in the book’s otherwise greyscale landscape) can be found in the girl’s dress, the marine life, and the sky itself. The opposites are integrated (emotionally, spatially, and chromatically) and harmony is achieved. #wave #beach #shore #water #sea #ocean #splash #friendship #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbooks #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks