Review - Ocean Meets Sky

Ocean Meets Sky
by Terry Fan & Eric Fan
Date: 2018
Publisher: Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 48
Format: e-book
Source: library

It’s a good day for sailing.

Finn lives by the sea and the sea lives by him. Every time he looks out his window it’s a constant reminder of the stories his grandfather told him about the place where the ocean meets the sky. Where whales and jellyfish soar and birds and castles float.

Finn’s grandfather is gone now but Finn knows the perfect way to honor him. He’ll build his own ship and sail out to find this magical place himself!

And when he arrives, maybe, just maybe, he’ll find something he didn’t know he was looking for.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I was really intrigued by the cover of this one. The illustrations looked gorgeous, and some of them are. I wasn't absolutely in love with the story, though, and the writing had some problems.

Finn builds a boat on what would have been his grandfather's ninetieth birthday. It whisks him away on a magical adventure, eventually leading him to the place his grandfather talked about: where the ocean meets the sky. The story itself is fine; as a dream/fantasy, it works. The reader can clearly see how much Finn and his grandfather loved each other, even if the grandfather isn't even present in most of the book. Unlike Ida and the Whale, another picture book about a magical journey that I just read, the goal is more clearly spelled out. Finn really wants to find the place his grandfather talked about. I did like how that journey had a well-defined end. I'm just not sure if the story held my interest as an adult reader.

The beginning of the book has illustrations that are a bit more muted. I guess that's supposed to show the mundane ordinary world... but I found them kind of dull and boring. Once Finn gets into the fantasy, the pictures are much more engaging. I particularly liked the island of giant shells and the sea of jellyfish. The great golden fish, though, I found a bit terrifying; he acts as Finn's guide, so he's kind of a necessary part of the story, but I'm not sure how he'd go over with little kids.

The writing is fairly sparse, which makes me a bit annoyed that it couldn't have been polished to perfection. As it is, there are a number of sentence fragments. I don't like seeing stuff like that in children's books, since many kids absorb a lot of grammar lessons simply by reading.

I probably shouldn't have judged a book by its cover, but I did, and that led to a bit of disappointment. There are certainly some beautiful illustrations within the book, but they're not all as magical as what's depicted on the outside.

Premise: 3/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 3/5
Illustrations: 4/5
Originality: 4/5

Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall: 3.33 out of 5