Town Is by the Sea

March 27, 2017
In an author’s note, Schwartz (Pinny in Summer) explains that until the 1950s, boys who grew up in Canadian coal towns knew that their futures lay at the bottom of their local mine. Her young narrator takes readers through a typical day, describing a quiet, unchanging life. Smith’s (The White Cat and the Monk) expressive, evocative spreads contrast the light-soaked landscape above with the night-black mine below, and the boy’s varied activities with his father’s fixed routine. In the morning, the boy stands in his underwear and gazes out the window toward the sea. A page turn reveals inky darkness: “And I know my father is already deep down under that sea, digging for coal.” The boy plays and does errands as his father toils far below. “One day,” the boy concludes, “it will be my turn.... In my town, that’s the way it goes.” In Schwartz’s lyrical, wistful account, there’s no sense of injustice or complaint—only a note of resignation. It’s a sensitive way of helping readers understand that, for some, the idea of choosing a career is a luxury. Ages 5–9. Illustrator’s agent: Emily van Beek, Folio Literary Management.

Starred review from February 1, 2017
The coal mines of Cape Breton in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia have closed, but this book recalls a time when generations of men toiled in the mines under the sea.As the book starts, a white couple stands by the door. The woman holds her husband's lunch pail as he gets ready to leave home. Upstairs, their son wakes up, and it is from him that readers will get to know his town and life by the sea, the repeated phrase "it goes like this--" lending the narrative a timeless quality. Both the text and the illustrations have a simple, understated quality that go hand in hand and lend a melancholic feel to the whole. A muted palette and images heavily outlined in black reinforce the feeling. As the boy goes about his life above--playing with his brown-skinned friend; coming home to a simple lunch; going to the store with a list for the grocer; or visiting his grandfather's grave overlooking the sea--several predominantly black two-page spreads, vigorously textured strokes of black and gray adding weight, are woven into the narrative, reminding readers that deep down, the miners are digging for coal. A particularly poignant spread depicts the front door of the house in a wordless series, the angle of the sunlight showing time going by; in the last image the door is opening, and the narrator's father is home at last. A quiet book that will stay with readers long after they have closed it. (Picture book. 5-8)

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Starred review from February 1, 2017

K-Gr 3-This first-person narrative portrays a day in the life of a loving family in a seaside mining town. As the tale begins, Schwartz lays the foundation for a comparison of the boy's daily routines, illuminated by sunshine, with the father's world underground. The rhythm is established and continued at logical junctures with the protagonist's introductory words: "It goes like this..." He then describes what he notices when he awakens, swings with his friend, eats a bologna sandwich, and visits the grave of his grandfather-also a miner. As the boy gazes at the sparkling water or basks in the light pouring through the diaphanous bedroom curtain, he is cognizant that "deep down under that sea, my father is digging for coal." These phrases are also repeated periodically as the blackness that occupies most of the related spreads presses down on-and eventually eclipses-a small border depicting the father and coworker crawling through the mines. The voice is matter-of-fact, without judgment, and self-aware. Readers are left to draw their own conclusions. As in Smith's illustrations for Jo Ellen Bogart's The White Cat and the Monk, the ink and watercolor scenes are characterized by companionable relationships and strong brushwork; effectively evoking the story's subject and qualities, the blackness forms shadows, window frames, silhouettes, outlines around objects (heavier around the father's teacup than the mother's), and, at the family dinner, a tangled mass under the table.

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 1, 2017
Grades 1-4 *Starred Review* In this atmospheric story, a young boy describes a day in his seaside town. As he details his experiences, his winsome descriptions of fresh salt air and the light shining on the sea stand in sharp contrast to the confined darkness of the coal mine where his father works. Although nothing bad happens on this day, an unsettling sense of melancholy permeates the words and, especially, Smith's paintings, which are rendered in rich, warm watercolors accented by thick, black ink. As the boy revels in the sunshine, he thinks of his father in darkness below. At one point, the miners recede from view, and the darkness encroaches on their narrow tunnel at the bottom of the page. In the next two-page spread, the boy visits the graveyard where his grandfatherwho also was a mineris buried. A picture of the calm, expansive sea, glittering with sunshine, is paired with a dark, empty mine, rendered in heavy, black scribbles. The tension is broken when the boy's father appears in the door to their home, but the happy family dinner scene is haunted by a smear of darkness under the table, suggesting that anxiety never is completely removed. The boy's somewhat wistful statements echo that feeling as he notes, I think about the bright days of summer and the dark tunnels underground. One day it will be my turn. I'm a miner's son. Hauntingly beautiful.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)