A Gift from the Sea [Hardcover]

Kate Banks (Author), Georg Hallensleben (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 3 and up

"Banks and Hallensleben make beautiful books together." -- American Bookseller

A boy picks up a rock that he finds on the beach. He holds it in his hand, and admires it. He doesn't know that the rock has been on a great journey through time in making its way to him: that it was spewed forth from a fiery volcano, then altered by eons of wind and rain, frozen during the ice age, and finally carried out into the ocean, where it lay on the floor of the sea before being thrust onto the shore at his feet. But he does know that it is a gift from the sea.

Kate Banks and Georg Hallensleben combine their talents to tell a story that is as wonderfully simple as it is profound.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this disarming reflection on permanence, the creators of And If the Moon Could Talk find the sublime in an ordinary stone. They begin in the present, as a boy finds a reddish, potato-shaped rock on an ochre beach. The scene then shifts to conical silhouettes and primordial explosions: "He didn't know that the rock had been spewed from a fiery volcano and cooled in the shade of a thousand years." Additional spreads picture a luxuriant jungle, fierce dinosaurs and pale-blue glaciers before returning to the modern boy: "He felt the ridges and grooves of the rock. He rubbed its rough edges." Further flashbacks show the rock among cavemen and as a landmark in an ancient city; though marble columns topple, the stone remains. By the time the contemporary boy places his find beside his box of sea glass, the rock's astonishing history has been well established. Hallensleben contrasts intimate close-ups of the present with middle-distance views of the remote past. His contemplative paintings model the slow progress of time, and every image includes a glimpse of the iron-oxide-brown rock as it erodes to the size of a child's hand. By expressing wonder at a seemingly mundane object, Banks and Hallensleben challenge readers to see the universe in a grain of sand. Ages 3-6.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

K-Gr 3-A boy finds a rock on a beach and, although he is unaware of its lengthy, dramatic history, he appreciates its beauty and accepts it as a "gift from the sea." The stretch of geologic time allows Hallensleben full use of the palette in creating his rich paintings: golden wheat fields, white pillars of an ancient city, the turquoise of the water. The simple prose takes poetic turns as the rock is "swallowed" by a river or rests in "crisp blue stillness" beneath the ice. Never mind that it is unlikely that a rock resting deep in the sea near a sunken ship will be delivered to a beach with its ridges and grooves still rough. This is a book to inspire wonder at the vast history of geology and the beauty of the sea and its gifts.

Ellen Heath, Orchard School, Ridgewood, NJ

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 3 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) (April 6, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374325669
• ISBN-13: 978-0374325664
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 10.2 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #710,457 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Profund book of depth and meaning, Glorious colour, November 27, 2004

By 

Kotori (Australia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: A Gift from the Sea (Hardcover)

One day at the sea a boy finds a rock. Just a rock, but he liked it and considered it a gift from the sea. He takes it home and we get to see through the descriptions of the author and the paintings from the artist(Georg Hallensleben)the fascinating history of the humble rock.

After exploding out of a fiery volcano and witnessing the dinosaurs, being submerged in an ice cap, used as a cave, and
"centuries of rain and wind
had worn away the rock,
changing it's shape and form"
and so on
"or that by the light of a full moon,
the rock had been thrust onto the beach

But when the boy held the rock in his hand
and felt it's warmth, he knew that it was
a gift from the sea. "

Exploring the transmutations of humble objects we would think no further on,I think this book would appeal to all philosophers youthful or aged.

The painted illustrations are in full and glorious colour, exploding onto the page & filling every corner, imbuing this profund book with a depth and meaning rarely explored.

As a final footnote, I would heartily recommend this book for purchasing.
Kotori