The Boy Who Held Back the Sea

by Thomas Locker and Lenny Hort

Book Overview

From the award-winning and renowned illustrator Thomas Locker, beautiful oil-painted illustrations pair with this wonderful retelling of the traditional Dutch folktale.

Jan had never done anything more heroic than shout for the guard because he'd imagined he'd seen a sea serpent. But when Jan discovered water trickling through a desolate stretch of the dike that protected his low-lying village, he knew he had to act fast.

"Visually stunning."--Publishers Weekly

"Locker's depiction of nature overpowering humanity is especially significant to the story and to the Dutch people who have spent centuries battling the sea."--School Library Journal

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140546138
• ISBN13: 9780140546132
• Release Date: March 1993
• Publisher: Puffin Books
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 10.5" x 8.4"
• Age Range: 3 to 5 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Kindergarten

Customer Reviews

Sweet childhood story - Pictures were phenomenal

My husband lived in the Netherlands for two years, so we've seen a few pictures and heard a few stories. When we checked this book out through the library, I knew we had to have it. The story is simple, and the pictures are amazing and penetrating classics.

Classic tale

This book tells a version of the story of the little Dutch boy who holds back the sea with his finger. In this version, the boy is a bit naughty. He gets to skip church by offering to carry a pie to blind man, but then eats the pie himself instead of delivering it. When he finds the leaky dike, nobody believes him because he is known to be such a troublemaker. As a result, he ends up spending the night alone by the dike and has to endure a raging storm before he and the dike are rescued. The book is a little scary but it's a good engaging story. The pictures are all done in the style of the Dutch Masters. It has about 1000 words.