Take your little one on a realistic adventure to the ocean any time! "Hello Ocean" is a first-person account from a young girl speaking to her best friend, the ocean, and describing how it appeals to all five of her senses. The rhyming couplets flow in a hypnotizing cadence using the poetic techniques of metaphor, simile, and alliteration. The pictures are very realistic - some could be mistaken as photographs - showing the female narrator swimming, splashing, sunbathing, and exploring. New words like "screak, aroma, briny, refrain, and hue" abound to expand your child's vocabulary. They can also learn to read color words, as well as learn some variations of colors like "chameleon" and "amber."
All the new words and creative phrasing will inevitably bring out many questions from your child. They may want to know what it means for the ocean to 'crash rumors toward the shore', what "froggy songs" are, or what the ocean smells and tastes like. They will enjoy participating in the rhyming, memorizing and repeating with you phrases like "Squishy, sandy, soggy ground, Slippery seaweed that wraps around." If your child has never been to the ocean, this is a great way to explain what it is like and teach them how it is different from a lake or pool. If your child has been to the ocean, they will delight in recognizing the views and remembering their own fun pastimes at the shore. You can encourage them to share memories or dreams of the ocean, and distinguish between the senses - what they see, hear, touch, smell and taste.
My five-year-old friend, Molly, loved flipping through the pages and seeing the pictures. She said they were very pretty, and she has a swimsuit just like the little girl in the book. Molly has never been to the ocean, so we talked about how the sand would be hot, the water would taste salty, and the air might smell fishy. She said she would like to go to the ocean when she and her little brother are bigger, so they can swim in the waves together.
--Audra
