The Day Ocean Came to Visit - Hardcover

DIANE WOLKSTEIN is an internationally acclaimed storyteller, author of more than twenty books for children, and a professor at New York University. She lives in New York City.

STEVE JOHNSON and LOU FANCHER are the illustrators of many highly acclaimed books for children, including I Walk at Night, a New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Book of the Year. They live in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

K-Gr 3-An accomplished storyteller has reworked a Nigerian creation myth, "Why the Sun and Moon Live in the Sky," found in Elphinstone Dayrell's 1910 collection, Folk Stories from South Nigeria, West Africa. In Wolkstein's version, Sun, Moon, and Ocean become distinct personalities. While Moon stays home tending her garden, Sun wanders abroad and befriends the loquacious, entertaining Ocean. At Moon's urging, he invites Ocean to the home they share. When he realizes how big she is, and how many creatures-whales, sharks, jellyfish, etc.-are part of her, he greatly enlarges his house. The artists have depicted Sun and Moon as human beings with shining round heads, while Ocean speaks from a smiling face in the waves. The illustrations, painted in a magical-realist style with glowing blues and golds, lovingly suggest specific details pertaining to each character: the flowers Moon tends, the giraffe Sun rides, the shells and birds at Ocean's edge. Though the waters flood their bamboo-walled home and drive them skyward, Sun and Moon seem to relish their new environment. Blair Lent illustrated the tale as Dayrell told it, Why the Sun and the Moon Live in the Sky (Houghton, 1968), using a limited palette to portray Africans wearing masks and costumes, staging the story as a performance piece. Wolkstein's new treatment is worthwhile for its engaging text and appealing art.

Margaret A. Chang, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, North Adams

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