  | Full Text Reviews: Booklist - 04/01/2016 A kid sporting red overalls and facing away from the reader looks out over a serene, minimalist beach scene, all horizontal lines and slight ruffles of waves. “What is over the ocean?” the child wonders, and in each subsequent two-page spread, Gomi reveals the imagined possibilities, rendered in rich, saturated watercolor tones in the sky, while the beach below remains the same on each spread. As the pages progress, the kid’s imagination becomes wilder. “Are there fairs over the ocean?” appears below a scene of myriad children on bright, fanciful carnival rides. Gradually, the child wonders whether there’s someone else on a beach far away, and the sky reveals a similar kid in blue overalls gazing over the ocean. The spare text, wide horizontal swaths of color, and the child’s motionless pose throughout give the book a contemplative, faintly somber feel, and if Gomi’s sumptuous watercolor paintings look old-fashioned, it’s because they are—originally published in Japan in 1979, this marks the book’s first translation into English. A warm, inviting, and meditative celebration of imagination and wonder. - Copyright 2016 Booklist. Loading...
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