Out of the Ocean [Hardcover]

Debra Frasier (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up | Grade Level: P and up

Open this book and walk along the ocean shore. If you look carefully, you might find all kinds of things. Some--like shells and sea glass--will be small enough to fit in your hand. Others--like the sun and the sky and the waves--will be too big to carry home. But no matter what your journey holds, you’ll soon discover that looking for the ocean’s treasures can be as important as finding them.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"My mother says you can ask the ocean to bring you something. If you look, she says, you might find it." So begins the child narrator in Debra Frasier's Out of the Ocean, a loving tribute to the sea. For over 35 years, Frasier's family lived just north of Vero Beach, Florida, in a house overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. During that time, she combed the shore, took many pictures, and finally wrote this beachy paean. Close-up photographs of sand allow readers to see every raspy grain, and cut-paper collages splash across the sandy, shell-strewn background to form incoming surf or dune plants such as periwinkle and hibiscus. As readers walk along the shore with the author, we find beach glass, flotsam, a little jetsam, pelican feathers, black skate egg pouches, and other shore-side marvels. The little girl asks the ocean to show her treasures like these, but her mother asks for things that are too big to carry home--water, the sun, the moon, the sound of waves. A glossary in the back provides more information on shells, finding messages in bottles, and egg pouches, and plants and trees, in addition to things too big to carry home. If you've ever wanted to introduce the ocean to a child who's never seen it, this book captures the dreamy sights, smells, sounds, and textures. (Ages 4 to 8) --Karin Snelson

From Publishers Weekly

"My mother says you can ask the ocean to bring you something. If you look, she says, you might find it," begins this picture book tribute to the sea. While the child covets such tangible "treasures" as sea glass, pelican feathers and a note-filled bottle, her mother "keeps asking for things that are too big to carry home. Sun. Water. Silver moonlight. The sound of waves. Sea turtle tracks at dawn." Frasier's (On the Day You Were Born) narrative sets the mother's rather impressionistic passages against the child's more grounded listing of the many ocean gifts the child collects. Graphically, the book combines full-spread photos of beach findings and sunlit water with Frasier's fanciful collage-like art. The opening double-page illustration invites readers to view the sunny beach scene along with daughter and mother, the sand stretching before them, hibiscus blooming and frothy waves hitting the shore. However, succeeding spreads are interrupted by grainy, distorted photos inset within the collages. Overlaid on top of these photos, framed in heavy black lines, mother and child are silhouetted with no discernible features, which tends to distance the reader. This jarring juxtaposition makes what would otherwise be a kind of spiritual scavenger hunt at the beach a rather jolting experience for the reader. "An Ocean Journal" at volume's end offers aspiring beachcombers information on some of the sea's fruits. All ages. (Mar.) FYI: The book is also available in the Out of the Ocean Treasure Bag and Ocean Journal Package (includes book, bag and 8-page journal) for $19.95, ISBN -201521-3.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books; 1st edition (March 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0152588493
• ISBN-13: 978-0152588496
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 10.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #843,932 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

DEBRA FRASIER is the author and illustrator of the picture book classic On the Day You Were Born. Her other books include Out of the Ocean, winner of the Southeast Booksellers Association Children's Book Award, and Miss Alaineus: A Vocabulary Disaster, an IRA Teachers' Choice and an IRA-CBC Children's Choice, A Birthday Cake is No Ordinary Cake, and a Fabulous Fair Alphabet, a CCBC Children's Concept Book Selection. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and offers an award winning website for teachers and families at www.debrafrasier.com.

While well known for her talks on book creation and creative process for adults and children, Debra's work does not stop with the last page of a book. Often entire community projects grow around her titles:

On the Day You Were Born is given in hospitals to newborns, murals cover birthing center hospital walls, and a symphony travels the country blending music, pictures, and text.

Miss Alaineus offers the astonishing Vocabulary Parade, so don't miss the short videos at her website showing the book's process and a sample parade in a school. Thousands of schools participate every year! Kids go wild with creativity and imagination in designing vocabulary words into costumes. (www.debrafrasier.com)

A Birthday Cake Is No Ordinary Cake has served as the inspiration for numerous community service projects where young people make "cake boxes" for the local food shelves.

And, most recently, A Fabulous Fair Alphabet offers a game to play at your local fair! OR consider hosting an Alphabet Fair at your local school or community center, directions on the website! Watch the invitation-to-play video, filmed at the Minnesota State Fair where Debra served as the Author in Residence in 2010, hosting a vocabulary booth for thousands of participants. (Watch a summary of this fair project at her website.) Also, a virtual fair tour on the website will introduce the fair to anyone who longs to see animals, rides, and fair foods!

It's all at: www.debrafrasier.com!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A joyous celebration of simple treasures., July 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Out of the Ocean (Hardcover)

This is a very sweet book for any age, any setting, to read over and over. I'm buying a stack to use as gifts.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awsome Photos - Great lesson for kids!, June 21, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Out of the Ocean (Hardcover)

Awsome photos and collage art make this a visually stimulating book for children. The second graders in my class loved it and clearly understood the deeper meaning of appreciating all of the gifts we receive each day - sunrise, air, water, etc.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As deep as the ocean itself, January 25, 2002

By 

M. Palombo (MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Out of the Ocean (Hardcover)

In a time of mushrooming materialism and tearing technomania, this delightful book for all ages pays homage to life's precious treasures that can be so easily taken for granted if we are not careful to notice them. Debra Frasier's enchanting collages combine cutouts, photographs, and words to eloquently remind us of the simple pleasures that are right under our noses if we remain open and take a moment to appreciate them.