Highly recommended, and not just for young children either (and by the way, Hello Ocean also seems to be available in both unilingual Spanish and dual-language Spanish/English editions, the latter of which I am definitely interested in trying sometime in the hopefully not too distant future). But aside from this minor little point, Hello Ocean is indeed a truly wonderful reading experience, redolent of the ocean, the beach, a picture book that truly endeavours to make the reader experience the seaside with all of his/her senses and in all of its glory (and also most definitively succeeds).

However and that all having been said, and similar to what my GR friend Lisa has already stated in her own excellent review of Hello Ocean, the scene with the fisherman is (or at least might be) a bit problematic (in my opinion), and not so much in my opinion that the person is fishing, but rather that he seems to be fishing on a public beach where children and adults are swimming, sunbathing (not altogether safe, and also, smelling, for seeing freshly caught fish at a public beach is not an image or a smell I really desire to experience and remember). Estrella’s pictures provide a realistic and esoteric, delightful complement, a perfect mirror of and for Pam Muñoz Ryan's lyrical and descriptive poetic paean, and as such Hello Ocean glowingly and caressingly features a for the most part simply and utterly perfect and successful marriage of text and image. And yes, little girl's verbal images have therefore also become my own and personal images, she has become me and I have become her, and both of us have in Hello Ocean merged with the water, with the waves, with the magic of the sea and its surroundings.Īnd of course Estrella's accompanying illustrations are also equally wonderful, realistic, yet also at the same time magical, evocatively enchanting, showing, presenting on a visual and concrete, pictorial level the translucent, magical beauty of the waves, of the sky, of the reflection of the setting sun on the surface of the water. And wow, I do feel myself so much and so completely immersed in and enveloped by the the author's presented narrative that with Hello Ocean I can almost literally see, feel, touch and smell the ocean myself (and can actually also and well imagine being that little girl, experiencing the waves, the sun, the scent of the salt wind, the touch of the sand, the squishy sea kelp on my bare skin). Poetically, lyrically, evocatively a young girl delightfully and glowingly textually describes how the ocean is her oldest and dearest friend, how she loves the sights, the sounds, the touch, the smells and tastes of the sea.

Yes indeed, Hello Ocean (penned by Pam Muñoz Ryan and graced with and by Mark Estrella’s glowing and luminous accompnying illustrations) truly and utterly delightfully present an opulent magical feast for the senses, and definitely for ALL of the senses.

Becoming Naomi León by Pam Muñoz Ryan