Poem: Sea Joy by Jacqueline Bouvier

Sea Joy

When I go down by the sandy shore
I can think of nothing I want more
Than to live by the blooming blue sea
As the seagulls flutter round about me

I can run about - when the tide is out
With the wind and the sand and the sea all about
And the seagulls are swirling and diving for fish
Oh - to live by the sea is my only wish..

           Jacqueline Bouvier
           from A Family of Poems (Kennedy)

8. House at Sea's End by Elly Griffiths

listened to the Audio Book (bought Audible)
narrated by Jane McDowell
Unabridged audio (10:45)
2011 Quercus Publishing
352 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 1/13/2020
Goodreads rating: 3.93 - 14,424
My rating: 4
Setting: Norwich area, England

First line/s:  "Two people, a man and a woman, are walking along a hospital corridor."

My comments:  I like Ruth Galloway a lot.  I like that she's not gorgeous, a tiny bit overweight and out of shape, and very, very smart.  I like that she is an atheist but goes along wither her Druid friend and her Catholic friends,  rolling her eyes at her "born again" parents constantly.  And I like that we follow, step-by-step, what happens with people's realization of who Kate's father a might be, nd and what happens between Ruth and Nelson, who is happily married to Michelle.  I do believe that you can love two people at the same time, and that's what's happening to Nelson.  Ruth's learning to live with it quite well, and I really respect her living in her cottage and isolation with her cat and baby, teaching at the local university and being pulled into local police activities when her expertise as a forensic archaeologist/anthropologist is needed.  Interesting series, quirky , well developed characters, and fascinating setting.

Goodreads synopsis:  Ruth Galloway has just returned from maternity leave and is struggling to juggle work and motherhood. When a team from the University of North Norfolk, investigating coastal erosion, finds six bodies at the foot of the cliff, she is immediately put on the case.

From Amazon:  A team of archaeologists, investigating coastal erosion on the north Norfolk coast, unearth six bodies buried at the foot of a cliff. How long have they been there? What could have happened to them? Forensics expert Ruth Galloway and DCI Nelson are drawn together again to unravel the past. Tests reveal that the bodies have lain, preserved in the sand, for sixty years. The mystery of their deaths stretches back to the Second World War, a time when Great Britain was threatened by invasion. But someone wants the truth of the past to stay buried, and will go to any lengths to keep it that way... even murder.

The Bravest Woman in America – Marissa Moss

Illustrated by Andrea U’Ren

Tricycle Press, 2011

32 pages

Rating:  4

Endpapers:  azure

Title page:  Oval of Ida rowing

Illustrations:  cover the entire page – no white – they’re bright, detailed, wonderful.

Alliteration:  “Ida loved the sea.  She loved it when it was calm and coppery in the sunlight.”

Similes:  “She loved it when it was wild with froth like a herd of stampeding horses.”

Incredible description:  “She loved the crash of the waves, the screech of gulls wheeling overhead, the bite of salt in her nose as she breathed in the ocean air.”

Snazzy verbs:  perched, lurched, shinnied, churned

Metaphor:  “bubble of trimph

This picture book is based on the story of Ida Lewis (1842-1911), the Newport, Rhode Island lighthouse keeper who rescued over 18 people during her tenure.

4. Hawkes Harbor - S. E. Hinton

Audio read by Dick Hill
Brilliance Audio, 2004
6 unabridged cds
$29.95
6 hrs.
256 pages
Rating: 3.5

This was nothing like I expected from S. E. Hinton. It was a fascinating story with many different layers, investigating the human mind and psyche. Depression, amnesia, short term memory, affects of uppers and downers and muscle relaxers, and the holds that people can have on one another. Take one footloose orphan that’s become a conman, seaman, and rabble-rouser, add a life-changing encounter with a vampire, and away we go!

The story skips around from early 1960s to late 1970s and is told in different ways. Jamie Somers relates tales told by his Irish friend, Kell, that reveal his late teens and early twenties, we look at the world through Jamie’s eyes at different, later, time periods, and we also listen to the recordings and notes that Dr. McDevitt, director of Terrace View Asylum, shares during his time with Jamie. It’s a rolling sea of story. The ending is unsettling. But, as I think about it, as it sits with me awhile, it works.

The book was read quite well by Dick Hill. He put an inflection into Jamie’s voice, making him sound feeble-minded and totally messed up, uncertain or jaunty – when it was called for. His Irish brogue for Kell was great, and the deep, masterful voice of Grenville Hawkes was right-on.

What a story!

The Water Gift and the Pig of the Pig - Jacqueline Briggs Martin

Illustrated by Linda S. Wingerter
Houghton Mifflin, 2003
32 pages
Rating: 4
Endpapers: light blue

Set in Waldo County, Maine, this is the story of a girl named Isabel who lives with her grandparents. Her grandfather is a water man. He was a sailor until he married and settled down and is a gifted dowser. His divining rod is a Y-shaped stick. He finds more than water, he finds lost animals, too.

When he feels he has lost his touch, and when the family's pet pig goes missing, Isabel discovers that she, too, has the water gift.

Illustrations are framed with a thin black line and a white border. They are really lovely and depict rural Maine and the seacoast perfectly.

Bot the author and illustrator grew up in Maine. They've given this book the right feel.

Billy Twitters and his Blue Whale Problem - Mac Barnett

Illustrated by Adam Rex
Disney/Hyperion, 2009
$16.99
40 pages
"ages 4-8" (I'd say great for 2nd-5th graders-funny and informative)
My rating: 5
Endpapers: Large advertisements for sea-related items in two shades of brown.

Another winner!

There are two types of illustrations in this wonderful book. Large, colorful, fanciful depictions of the story, and black and white (with brown and white) more technical drawings to illustrate the factual information that is presented. Combination FUN story and interesting blue whale facts.

Billy's parents are always threatening him - clean up your room/brush your teeth/finish your peas -- or they'd buy him a blue whale. Well...guess what. They must have gotten fed up with him enough to do just that. So he's stuck with the largest-ever-known mammal, which must accompany him wherever he goes. And does that ever cause problems!

Tsunami - Kimiko Kajikawa

Illustrated by Ed Young
Philomel Books, 2009
(Ellsworth Library 8/3/09)
$16.99
32 pgs.
For: ages 6-10
rating: 3.5
Endpapers: orange

A "long ago in Japan" folktale, white font on black on bottom eighth of page, illustrations collaged on rest of double-page spreads.

Ojiisan - grandfather - lived high on a mountain overlooking the sea. One day, after what seemed like a minor earthquake, the sea receeded, making more and more and more beach. Ojiisan knew what would happen when the sea came back - and it would devour all 400 villagers. So he set fire to every bit of his valuable rice fields to beckon everyone up the mountan. He saved them all.

Good verbal description of a tsunami - the collages (purposely?) leave a great deal to the imagination.