Off to See the Sea

PreS-Gr 2-Grimes and Zunon (Bedtime for Sweet Creatures) team up again, this time for a bathing adventure that fans will surely enjoy. Getting this particular child into the bathtub takes persuasion, imagination, and pretend, as Black parents coordinate efforts to get their reluctant child into the tub. What follows is a deep sea dive to depths unknown, some sneaky shampooing, and before anyone can realize it, the clean child ready for bed, tired after such a harrowing journey. Grimes keeps the overall story simple, using the senses and action to build each scene to realistically tell a story while also describing an imaginative world to entice any bather. Zunon saturates each page with colorful mixed media, that includes collage, acrylic paint, and gel pen. VERDICT The illustrations along with the swirl of words on each page add to the story's vibrancy and texture; there's always room in the collection for this kind of collaboration.-Hilary Tufo, Columbus Metropolitan Lib., Reynoldsburg, OH

Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Bath time becomes an opportunity for adventure and make-believe in this book by collaborators Grimes and Zunon (Bedtime for Sweet Creatures). In imagery-rich free verse by Grimes, a mother addresses her child: "Up and up I lift you/ till your toes leave the tile.../ slip-sliding into a soft-scented sea." Zunon renders the family of color naturalistically, with faces and bodies that appear three-dimensional. The figures move among cut-out forms of patterned paper that constitute the story’s make-believe elements-a waterfall (the faucet’s flow), crashing waves (which the child splashes up), undersea treasure (the tub plug), and more. A yellow rubber duck grows life-size: "Monsters straight ahead!" but there’s time for observing, too-the shining bath bubbles carry "copies of your smile." The mother doesn’t fuss about the waves her child makes; instead, she grabs the opportunity to shampoo "silky,/ wet curls." As the ocean adventure ends ("I sink my arm into the cooling waters of the raging sea"), the relationship between parent and child deepens through the imaginative possibilities offered by their everyday ritual. Ages 4-8. 

Copyright 2021 Publisher’s Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Children will delight... This ebullient account of a common childhood experience bursts with love and universal appeal.

A joyous chronicle of the delight that a bath can bring—imaginative and charming.