The Story of the Sea Glass

October 25, 1999
This somewhat labored story of Nicole and her grandmother is nonetheless chock-full of visual pleasures. Owens's (The Caribou Alphabet) panoramic scenes of Nicole and Nana searching for sea glass will appeal to ocean lovers and may well lure a few newcomers to Maine's breathtaking coast. Unfortunately, the lengthy text is excessively mannered and the plot-within-a-plot needlessly complicated. After a prolonged lead-in filled with Nana's memories, the book's central flashback story is triggered by a piece of smooth red sea glass the woman finds on the beach. She tells Nicole a story about how she accidentally broke an heirloom red glass vase and threw the broken shards into the sea to hide them. Despite an occasional pleasing image, Nana's speeches often overemphasize the book's themes ("This red glass is frosted now, and I can't see through it. It can't give us the rose-colored world I saw through the magical red vase. Yet the sun makes it glow in a wonderful new way"). Owens's watercolors, drenched in summer sunlight, portray the warm relationship between Nicole and her grandmother--and go a long way to ameliorate the strained tone of the text. All ages.

March 1, 2000
K-Gr 2-This story introduces readers to sea glass and its uses, and to the wild beauty of an island off the coast of Maine. Nana takes her granddaughter Nicole on a summer trip to visit the island where she lived as a child. They explore the beach and find a rare piece of red sea glass. It reminds Nana of a shameful incident in her youth when she accidentally broke her mother's treasured red vase and then tried to hide the evidence by throwing the pieces in the ocean. She wonders whether this piece could be from that vase. Although there is an attempt to make this an intergenerational story, it is Nana's tale that serves as a preliminary to the appended discussion of sea glass and the instructions for making sun-catchers. Nicole has very little to say throughout, except to ask an occasional question or offer a brief comment. It is in the watercolor illustrations that readers see the pair together enjoying their exploration of the rugged, still remote, and beautiful island.-Virginia Golodetz, Children's Literature New England, Burlington, VT

Copyright 2000 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2000
Ages 5^-7. As they sit together on a crowded city beach, Nicole urges her grandmother to take her back to see the seaside house on the island where Nana used to live. Flashing forward in time, the story resumes as they walk past the old house and down to the island beach, where they collect pieces of sea glass--bits of colored glass weathered by sea and sand. A rare red piece inspires a flashback to the 1940s as Nana recounts a childhood memory of breaking a treasured glass vase and hiding the shards in the ocean. Their journey ends with a plan to memorialize "this special place and this time together" by making sun catchers from the glass they've found. Nana's childhood misdeed gives the story just enough texture to keep it interesting. The book ends with a discussion of sea glass and instructions for making a sea-glass sun catcher. Though the time shifts may momentarily confuse listeners accustomed to a contained time frame for picture-book stories, the meaning is clear enough from the context. The line-and-watercolor paintings of the Maine coast are beautifully rendered. A tender picture book for those who are in love with the ocean, sea glass, and idyllic stories. ((Reviewed February 1, 2000))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2000, American Library Association.)