"Ocean! Moon and I would like to invite you to visit us."
"Oh, how nice. Thank you, but I'm afraid I'd be too much for you."
"Why is that?"
"Well, there's a lot of me -- shells and starfish and jellyfish and turtles and--"
"My house is large."
"That's not all — there are dolphins and sea lions and walruses and sharks—"
"'Sharks'? I…I will make my house a little larger."
"—and mermaids and seaweed and crabs and mussels and whales."
"'Whales'? I…I…I will make my house very large!"
Acclaimed storyteller Diane Wolkstein provides a lyrical answer to this puzzle in The Day Ocean Came to Visit, a retelling of a Nigerian creation myth.
Long ago, when Sun and Moon still lived on earth, they invited their new friend Ocean to visit their home. After many protests (after all, there was a lot of her), Ocean finally agreed to come. Sun and Moon worked and prepared for many days, but when Ocean finally arrived, they discovered that nothing could have prepared them for this visit!
The lovely illustrations are by the team of Steve Johnson & Lou Fancher, whose other credits include I Walk at Night and Dr. Seuss's My Many Colored Days.
"Wolkstein's lilting tale explains how the sun, moon and stars came to be in the sky. She imbues the narrative with gentleness and humor. Children will anxiously anticipate Ocean's entrance, and both text and illustrations may exceed their expectations...This is poetry in both words and pictures."
Publisher's Weekly (starred review).
In 2001, the New York Public Library's Office of Children's Services selected Diane's children's book The Day Ocean Came to Visit as the one and only Anne Carroll Moore Book for that year. This special designation brought Diane's book to every Children's Room within the NYPL's Branch Library System.
The late Anne Carroll Moore was the NYPL's first supervisor of children's work. One of her many accomplishments was to encourage children's librarians to actively celebrate special events and holidays with children.
An Anne Carroll Moore Book is designated for the Reading Room collections, and arrives at every NYPL branch with a gift bookplate attached. As part of the libraries' holiday customs, the librarians have often gift-wrapped the books, and then invited the children to unwrap the books and read aloud as part of a holiday story hour.
The Day Ocean Came to Visit was also named one of the NYPL's Recommended Books of 2001.
The Day Ocean Came to Visit
ISBN 0–15–201774–7, hardcover, USA $16.00
Publisher: Harcourt–Gulliver
The New York Public Library's Anne Carroll Moore Book 2001, and one of the NYPL's Recommended Books of 2001.
You can purchase this book by e–mailing Diane (we will get back to you with the payment details).
©2001 Diane Wolkstein, Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher. All rights reserved.