On the Edge of the Sea - Hardcover

Paraskevas, Betty

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0803711301 ISBN 13: 9780803711303

Publisher: Dial Books, 1992

Synopsis

A boy dreams that he lives in a sand castle on the edge of the sea

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Mischievous, animated illustrations form vibrant backgrounds in this mother-son collaboration about a fondly imagined day at the beach. Betty Paraskevas's text starts out promisingly, with a simple sweetness reminiscent of Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses --"I dreamed I lived on the edge of the sea / In a castle of sand with a window for me. . . ." Unfortunately, in recounting this wondrous day of friends, food, sea and sand, her rhymed couplets occasionally strain for effect, which results in some facile diction and awkward meter: "The air made me dizzy, stardust made me sneeze, / I lost my favorite hat in a wild, sudden breeze." Michael Paraskevas's lively, acrylic paintings are a genuine pleasure. In clear, glowing tones, he portrays hordes of delightfully tubby beach-goers frolicking in the surf, gobbling watermelon and trooping home under a moonlit sky. In a style that seems inspired by the joyful naivete of folk art and the whimsy of such surrealists as Rene Magritte, the artist fills his skies with soaring kites, bouncing beach balls and windblown umbrellas. A thoroughly winning debut. All ages.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal:

PreSchool-Grade 2-- An uninspired poem in which a featureless young boy relates his dream of living on the shore in a sand castle. Friends arrive to spend the day, relax in candy-striped chairs, eat hot dogs, and frolic in the waves. The tone becomes slightly more fanciful as beach balls descend from the sky and a large iceberg floats across the page. In the evening, the boy's hat is captured by the wind and deposited on the edge of the moon. Standing on the beach as an adult, the narrator muses, ``I never had another dream as wonderful as that,/ But sometimes when I see the moon I wonder/ Why I never found my hat.'' Although the verses read smoothly enough, their singsong rhythm eventually becomes monotonous. The acrylic paintings, which depict scene after scene of brightly costumed bathers, have a textured look that suits the subject matter; however, many of the spreads are painted from the same point of view, resulting in a repetitive layout. Neither verbal nor visual images are particularly evocative, making this day at the beach easy to forget. --Joy Fleishhacker, New York Public Library
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Dial Books
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0803711301
• ISBN 13: 9780803711303
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320