Wave [Hardcover]

Suzy Lee (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 16, 2008 | Age Range: 1 and up

In this evocative wordless book, internationally acclaimed artist Suzy Lee tells the story of a little girl's day at the beach. Stunning in their simplicity, Lee's illustrations, in just two shades of watercolor, create a vibrant story full of joy and laughter.

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book 2008

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Kindergarten-Grade 3—Lee's wordless picture book perfectly captures a child's day at the beach. Followed by a flock of seagulls, a girl runs delightedly to where waves break on the shore. She surveys the sea and together they begin a silent dance. She chases it as it recedes, runs from it as it surges, splashes in it when it calms, taunts it as it rises, and finally succumbs to it crashing down upon her and discovers what treasures the waves can bring. A panoramic trim size beautifully supports the expansiveness of the beach, and Lee uses the gutter to effectively represent the end of the shoreline—until the girl crosses that line. Loosely rendered charcoal and acrylic images curl and flow like water and reflect playfulness, especially in the facial and bodily expressions of the child and seagulls. The use of blue in an otherwise gray-toned world calls attention to the ocean, which rivals the girl as a main character in this story. Wave is best shared in small groups for the younger set, but also suited for solitary enjoyment by older children. A simple, well-crafted story of friendship.—Kim T. Ha, Elkridge Branch Library, MD
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Review

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
In a story of small events, Lee portrays a universal childhood experience of carefree adventure. She evokes the little girl's un-self-conscious joy and elicits tender amusement from the reader.

KIRKUS REVIEWS, STARRED REVIEW
Simply spectacular.

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, STARRED REVIEW
A book whose rewards multiply with rereading.

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, STARRED REVIEW
perfectly captures a child\'s day at the beach . A simple, well-crafted story of friendship.

SHELF AWARENESS
In 40 wordless pages, Lee captures the fascination, awe and ongoing sense of wonder that the ocean inspires in each of us, no matter how old.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 1 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (April 16, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 081185924X
• ISBN-13: 978-0811859240
• Product Dimensions: 12.3 x 0.4 x 7.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #28,113 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Taste of the sea August 14, 2008

By Helga Hoffman

Format:Hardcover

Suzy Lee's Wave is gorgeous, so expressive you can almost taste the salty water reaching the beach - and the girl. A lovely little story about how you acquire knowledge about this world, something you can't do without taking some risk. For children who don't read yet, and for adults any age who love beauty.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful Picture Book August 4, 2008

By M. Cook

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

They say a picture is worth a thousand words and this book proves it. There are no words, but the story is clear as you look at the pictures. The illustrations are delightful and the story cute. Much loved by my family.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars return to my childhood July 19, 2008

By Urbano Gutierrez Simon

Format:Hardcover

This book is very special, like "Zoo" (By Susy Lee). The girl plays with the wave among the pages, and the wave finds the way to enter in the girl's world. The world of the girl is on the right pages, and the wave's world is on the left pages... It is a book that invites me to remember my childhood, playing with the waves. The message is very tender and ingenious and the illustrations are very very nice and expressive.

[...]

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Wave January 31, 2009

By Susan E. Brennan

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is my 2 1/2 year old grandaughter's favorite book. We got it from the library for 4 weeks and she hated to return it. I bought it and had it shipped to her house. She asks her mother to read it to her every night. She says that she loves the little girl and the beach. The book has no words but great imaginative pictures that tell a story.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I can almost hear the waves churning August 21, 2008

By Matthew J. Baek

Format:Hardcover

I love this book! It's a take on a simple idea of a child playing with the waves. This wordless book doesn't need any words because you can hear the waves churning, seagulls crying and the sweet little girl giggling and screaming just from the simplified art.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Little Girl and the Sea January 18, 2009

By Catherine W. Hughes

Format:Hardcover

In this wordless picture book, the spare charcoal and acrylic illustrations tell all. A little girl comes to the ocean with her mother. She plays, teases and dances at the water's edge, learning the motion of the ocean. She dances with seagulls and kicks and splashes only to have a tall wave form. Taller and taller, closer and closer, it builds, until SPLASH, it crashes all over her and the shore, leaving behind a trail of treasures. The water calms to placid blue and the little girl walks away with a wave to her new friend. This is a beautiful story of how children form friendships and how they come to know things. It will appeal to the very youngest reader and five-year-olds alike.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful illustrations capture the joy of childhood in this wordless picture book January 1, 2009

By The Well-Read Child

Format:Hardcover

It's the simplicity of the book that makes it truly powerful. The black and white panoramic drawings of the girl, her mother, and the seagulls are accented with splashes of the ocean's brilliant blue. When the wave finally engulfs the little girl at the end and recedes back into the ocean, the pages also become engulfed in blue--the sky, the girl's dress, the sea shells, etc.

This book makes me want to go to the beach. It conjures up my own memories of my childhood, and makes me reminisce about the innocence of childhood and the magic of the ocean. Accessible to children and parents of many cultures and languages and accessible to children who can't yet read or who are struggling with reading, I give Wave my highest recommendation.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Wordless wonder! June 8, 2010

By Ulyyf

Format:Hardcover

This is a wonderful wordless book about a small child's first (I guess?) experience with the beach. We see her taunting the sea, getting splashed by the sea, and finally enjoying the sea and waving to it like a friend.

I love this one. Very simple and easy to follow.

Some people object to wordless picture books on principle, because they are unfamiliar with them. This is what I have to say to that:

Wordless picture books are PERFECT for pre-readers. It gives them the ability to read a book - REALLY own the experience instead of just "playing" as they must do when they can't understand the words - on their own. It gives them practice in putting together stories and working out details from context. And it allows them to be the expert at some activity that is usually restricted to adults and older children in their life - reading a book.

By that same token, they are also ideal for early readers. It's non-threatening, and yet it's still a way to practice following a storyline. Reading is more than just mechanically putting together sounds and reciting them, after all. Many people are impressed by a five year old who can say, word-perfect, some complex piece he or she "reads" from a page, but later they find out that the child has no idea what they just read and wasn't thinking of reading as an exercise in gleaning meaning from text, but merely as reciting memorized sounds and letter combinations. Working out the story for themselves from a book with no words is a wonderful way to practice this sort of "reading for meaning".

But what of the child who stumbles in reading? Well, the child who stumbles when reading but can tell you WHAT they read is light-years ahead of the one who sounds pretty but doesn't grasp the meaning.... At any rate, this child is still getting much needed practice in the conventions of reading without the letters to stress and trip them up.

Of course, you don't want the only book in your house to be a wordless picture book, I understand that, because children do need print to practice reading, but a few are a WONDERFUL thing for a child. And who has just one book, anyway? Read more ›