The Sea Chest (Hardcover)

by Toni Buzzeo (Author), Mary GrandPre (Illustrator) "ity lights flicker in the dusk like winking fireflies..." (more)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
While waiting for a "stranger," a girl snuggles with her great-great-aunt, looking at a photo of a small child "touched so often with hope, the edges curl." This intriguing beginning launches a touching story-within-a-story. Auntie Maita describes her loneliness as the only child of a Maine lighthouse keeper. One morning, after a fierce storm, Maita and her father find a sea chest wrapped in mattresses. Inside, they find a baby and this sorrowful note: "We commit this child into the hands of God. May He save her." Basing her plot on a local legend, Buzzeo, a Maine school librarian making her picture book debut, writes with such vivid, sensory-rich language that readers are almost certain to feel Maita's yearning for companionship and, later, her joy at having a sister. GrandPr 's (illustrator of the Harry Potter books) oil paintings, too, communicate the characters' shifting moods. During the storm, Mama and Maita peer through the window at Papa as he lurches against the wind toward the lighthouse. In a shadowy, sea-like, blue-green room, their candlelit faces exude a deep but stoically controlled fear. Back in the present, the girl looks expectantly at the quilt-lined sea chest, which "waits open on the table, for the tiny stranger my mama and papa have gone to fetch from so far across the wide Atlantic. To be my sister." Poignant, poetic and movingly illustrated, this story resonates with sisterly love. Ages 5-up. (Aug.)
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 1-4-Aunt Maita tells her great-grandniece about her wonderful but lonely young years as the only child of a lighthouse keeper and his wife on a rocky Maine island. The text is poetic, describing the change in seasons in this remote setting. Then comes a terrible storm that frightens the family and bodes disaster for any ship at sea. The following day, Maita and her father find a bundled mattress, obviously washed ashore from a sunken ship. Unfolding it, they discover a leather sea chest with a baby inside, accompanied by a note from her despairing parents. The family adopts the child and they raise her as their own. Together Maita and Seaborne spend their days together-first on the island and later on the mainland where they live close by. At the end, readers learn that Aunt Maita, now an old woman, is telling the story to her niece as the child is waiting for her own adopted sister to arrive from overseas. GrandPr‚'s oil paintings create the dramatic effects of the story. From the muted sunrise on the endpapers to the sunset on the back cover, this lovely book has an intimacy that is enhanced by reading it aloud. The combination of exquisite language and enchanting illustrations makes this a unique and outstanding book.
Barbara Buckley, Rockville Centre Public Library, NY
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Dial (August 5, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803727038
• ISBN-13: 978-0803727038
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 9.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #338,844 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning, September 8, 2002

By A Customer

Oh! That moment when the girl is watching her father open the sea chest, hoping for a kitten...and the reader turns the page...It's a heart-stopper. The language is rich and lyrical. The story is irrestible. I was entranced from beginning to end.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lyrical and Moving, October 9, 2002

By	Nancy (Northborough, MA USA) - See all my reviews

Toni Buzzeo takes us on a magical trip back through time to the days when the vigilance and skill of the lighthouse keeper were the only things between a storm tossed ship and catastrophe. But then, there were some storms so fearsome that even the lights were of no help. Auntie Maita's reminiscences of her solitary childhhod on fictional Sanctuary Island are lyrical and moving. She tells the story of one storm and the sea chest that washed up on shore in its aftermath. The connection between the contents of the chest and the event that awaits Auntie Maita and her grand niece eighty years later is one that will leave you in tears as you gently close the cover of the book.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Touching, September 28, 2002

By A Customer

The Sea Chest is an incredibly touching story that children and adults alike will love to read. The descriptive language is a wonderful example for young writers. As a Literacy Specialist in Maine, I have read it to several 4th grade classrooms and you could hear a pin drop! They were fascinated by the story and the art work. Keep up the fantastic work, Toni!