A Gift from the Sea

By Kate Banks

"Banks and Hallensleben make beautiful books together." - American Bookseller A boy picks up a rock that he finds on the beach. He holds it in his hand, and admires it. He doesn't know that the rock has been on a great journey through time in making its way to him: that it was spewed forth from a fiery volcano, then altered by eons of wind and rain, frozen during the ice age, and finally carried out into the ocean, where it lay on the floor of the sea before being thrust onto the shore at his feet. But he does know that it is a gift from the sea. Kate Banks and Georg Hallensleben combine their talents to tell a story that is as wonderfully simple as it is profound.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374325669
• ISBN13: 9780374325664
• Release Date: April 2001
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
• Length: 40 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.4" x 0.4" x 10.4"
• Age Range: 3 to 6 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 1

Customer Reviews

Profund book of depth and meaning, Glorious colour

One day at the sea a boy finds a rock. Just a rock, but he liked it and considered it a gift from the sea. He takes it home and we get to see through the descriptions of the author and the paintings from the artist(Georg Hallensleben)the fascinating history of the humble rock. After exploding out of a fiery volcano and witnessing the dinosaurs, being submerged in an ice cap, used as a cave, and "centuries of rain and wind had worn away the rock, changing it's shape and form" and so on "or that by the light of a full moon, the rock had been thrust onto the beach But when the boy held the rock in his hand and felt it's warmth, he knew that it was a gift from the sea. " Exploring the transmutations of humble objects we would think no further on,I think this book would appeal to all philosophers youthful or aged. The painted illustrations are in full and glorious colour, exploding onto the page & filling every corner, imbuing this profund book with a depth and meaning rarely explored. As a final footnote, I would heartily recommend this book for purchasing. Kotori