PICTURE BOOK - Town is by the Sea by Joanne Schwartz

Illustrated by Sydney Smith

2017, Groundwood Books, Toronto

$19.95 HC

52 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.2

My rating:  4.5

Endpapers CharCOAL gray (dark)

Illustrations Black, brown & white with slight hints of color here and there.

1^st line/s:  "From my house, I can see the sea."

My comments:  This is both a simple story and one that takes a lot to digest.  That might sound like an oxymoron, but It's exactly what this book is.  It's about living in a coal mining town in the 1950s, where all the men work in the mine, all their fathers worked in the mine, and now their sons will work in the mine.  The illustrations are simple...and wonderful.  The sea sparkles.  But it is black under the sea, where the miners work all day....  So much to think about and talk about!  4.5 (I have to lower my personal rating a half point for the depression factor.)

Goodreads:  A young boy wakes up to the sound of the sea, visits his grandfather’s grave after lunch and comes home to a simple family dinner with his family, but all the while his mind strays to his father digging for coal deep down under the sea. Stunning illustrations by Sydney Smith, the award-winning illustrator of Sidewalk Flowers, show the striking contrast between a sparkling seaside day and the darkness underground where the miners dig.
          With curriculum connections to communities and the history of mining, this beautifully understated and haunting story brings a piece of Canadian history to life. The ever-present ocean and inevitable pattern of life in a Cape Breton mining town will enthrall children and move adult readers.