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9th out of 57 books
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100 voters
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Wave
by
Suzy Lee
In this evocative wordless book, internationally acclaimed artist Suzy Lee tells the story of a little girl's day at the beach. Stunning in their simplicity, Lee's illustrations, in just two shades of watercolor, create a vibrant story full of joy and laughter.
New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book 2008
New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book 2008
Hardcover, 40 pages
Published
April 16th 2008
by Chronicle Books
(first published January 1st 2008)
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The powerful ocean is no match for a small girl and her posse of seagulls, especially when the girl has mastered an understanding of how waves work. At first she’s frightened by the water coming at her when she’s on the beach but once she understands that the waves will pull back again and again, she becomes all powerful. She stands at just outside their reach and commands them with her small body -- angry, scary, and taunting. Each time a wave recedes, it appears to be responding to her actions...more
Through simple black and white and blue illustrations, Suzy Lee depicts a little girl’s day at the beach. The simple pleasures of childhood are seen as the little girl plays with the waves and the birds, and collects shells on the beach. It is the little girl’s innocence and lightheartedness that really stood out to me when I was reading. I thought that the way she played with the waves and tried to “scare” them with her facial expressions was endearing. Eventually though, the wave overpowers he...more
Abigail
rated it
Recommends it for:
Suzy Lee Fans / Readers Who Enjoy Wordless Picture-Books
Recommended to Abigail by:
The Picture-Book Club
Shelves:
picture-books
Chosen as one of the Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2008 by The New York Times, this charming wordless picture-book by Korean artist Suzy Lee tells the story of a young girl's adventure at the beach. Chasing the receding waves, and being chased by them in turn, the girl splashes and cavorts along the shore, by turns delighted with and frightened by her oceanic playmate, which leaves her a parting gift...
After finding Mirror, another of Suzy Lee's wordless picture-books, just de...more
After finding Mirror, another of Suzy Lee's wordless picture-books, just de...more
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As a teacher:
This wordless book uses 4 elements of design that provides the reader with a wonderful imagination/meaningful connections of a day at the beach. Suzy Lee uses charcoal as a medium to illustrate the mesmerizing wave that the little girl of the story interacts with. Lee uses curved and straight lines to show off the wave's movements as it builds up in the ocean or as it crashes onto the shore. The author also uses rolling "shapes" of the wave to allow for interpretatio...more
This wordless book uses 4 elements of design that provides the reader with a wonderful imagination/meaningful connections of a day at the beach. Suzy Lee uses charcoal as a medium to illustrate the mesmerizing wave that the little girl of the story interacts with. Lee uses curved and straight lines to show off the wave's movements as it builds up in the ocean or as it crashes onto the shore. The author also uses rolling "shapes" of the wave to allow for interpretatio...more
This is a wonderful wordless book about a little girl playing at the ocean. It was fun for us to "read" this book together, and reminisce about our years living in Hawaii. Our girls were quite adamant that her mommy must've been close by, since she could've been pulled out to sea by the big wave and the undertow. They also pointed out that, "you should never turn your back to the ocean," an important lesson we have taught them. The illustrations were simple, with only sha...more
When it comes to picture books that are wordless, I think it is up to those illustrations to make up for there not being any text. I think that this book delivered that. The illustrations on every page were simple yet beautiful. Who doesn't love to look at the ocean and that pretty color of blue? Sometimes we have to read so much that it's refreshing to read a book where all you have to do is look at pictures. I think this book offers a great use of imagination and allows children to experience ...more
My 9 yr old daughter brought this home from the school library. It has no words, only simple, beautiful drawings of a girl on the shore and of course, waves. You can make up your own story. My daugher and I have shared "reading" this together and it starts discussions about our times at the beach. Just a lovely, simple delight.
A delightful wordless picture book brought to my attention by the Children’s Picture Book Club monthly discussions found here http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/4539... It is about a little girl at the beach and her interactions with a wave and some friendly seagulls. Fun illustrations with simple color choices, blue, white, and black make this book worth the read. One thing that was a bit perplexing and slightly annoying was in some of the illustrations the poor little girl lost a limb because...more
This book is about a day at the beach for a little girl and her mother. The young girl plays in the sand and works up to being confident about the ocean. All while seagulls play right behind her. This book is wordless.
The simplistic style used for creating the illustrations are wonderful. Charcoal outlining items and makings of the people. While teal for the splashing of the ocean. A small child would understand the concept of the story by how great the author completed her drawings. Plus ...more
The simplistic style used for creating the illustrations are wonderful. Charcoal outlining items and makings of the people. While teal for the splashing of the ocean. A small child would understand the concept of the story by how great the author completed her drawings. Plus ...more
Anna Keegan
added it
I enjoyed the story overall. It contained interesting opposites - fear of wave and enjoyment of the wave. It is didactic because it is urging children not to be afraid of the ocean. It contains an element of a pleasure of innocence, namely being content to play in the sand by yourself, being able to show your mommy something. However, there are also dangers of innocence, namely not having the capability to be smart about the ocean. I do not think that Nodelman would like this because the opposit...more
One of the nice things about cataloging for a library is you get to see all the different books other people ordered. Every so often will catch my eye and I have to stop and look at it. Now I must admit this happens most with children's books and the ones with gorgeous pictures of food. :)Anyway, this was one of the books that came across my desk, and I couldn't resist flipping through it.
I have always enjoyed wordless books and this one was no exception. I love the simple black...more
I have always enjoyed wordless books and this one was no exception. I love the simple black...more
This is a wordless picture book about a little girl and her experiences with waves at the beach. The book is cute because it shows the curious nature of children. The girl is pictured looking at the waves and splashing in them. As the story progresses, she is seen running from larger waves and sticking her tongue out at them. She then gets splashed and is all soaked. At the end, she is picking up sea shells left behind from the big wave.
This would be a fun book to use in a classroo...more
This would be a fun book to use in a classroo...more
Carter
rated it
Recommended to Carter by:
Alvina (I think)
Shelves:
favorite-illustrators,
illustrated-children-s
A wordless picture book about a little girl playing in the ocean. What's so wonderful about this book is the look of joy and strength as the girl "battles" the ocean. This is a beautiful book sure to be a classic.
This wordless picture book is fabulous, with one exception. The edition I got from the library loses important parts of the illustrations in the gutter! ARGH. It's too nice of a book for that to happen!
I really enjoyed this wordless picture book. I could tell exactly what the story was. The little girl was at the beach, got angry at the water and birds, but eventually liked them. In the beginning, the little girl would get mad at the waves because they would get her wet and she would get mad at the birds because they would try and peck at her. When the water went away from her, she thought that she had scared it until it eventually came back and got her soaking wet. Then she saw what the ocean...more
Brianna Donabedian
added it
This book was composed entirely of pictures. I enjoyed it at the beginning, but it seemed a bit too simple as I continued on. It tells the story of a little girl who is playing at the edge of the ocean. At first, she is scared of the waves, running away every time they come her way. As the story progresses, she gains more and more confidence and tries to "scare" the waves away. Eventually, she gets wet and find out there is nothing to be afraid of. Therefore, she spends the rest ...more
Another wordless picture book. This one is beautifully done. All of the images look like charcoal drawings and are basically black and white with a little bit of blue. It’s all about a girl at the beach playing with a wave. I really appreciated how the artist was able to give the reader (viewer) a strong impression of the little girl’s personality. She was cute, sassy, funny little girl with a wonderful imagination. My favorite part was when she stuck her tongue out at the wave and on the next p...more
Wave is a picture book by Suzy Lee. It shows a small girl’s first experiences at the beach. It is a cute story about friendship. The story begins by saying hello to the wave and ends by saying goodbye.
The pictures are charcoal and acrylic and have very few colors.
The author is from Seoul, South Korea.
It is for kids from age K on up. The story could be more complex depending on the age. This story could be a lot of things, depending on the age of the rea...more
The pictures are charcoal and acrylic and have very few colors.
The author is from Seoul, South Korea.
It is for kids from age K on up. The story could be more complex depending on the age. This story could be a lot of things, depending on the age of the rea...more
Lisa Vegan
rated it
Recommends it for:
fans of brilliant wordless picture books, the ocean, the beach, nature, humor
Oh, I just loved this book. It’s brilliant in every way. I was completely charmed.
It’s the wordless story of a young girl who goes to the beach with her mother/a female adult, and it’s about her, some birds, some beach finds, and some waves/the ocean.
Any young child or any person who took at least one beach trip as a child will perfectly understand the events.
Recently, some Goodreads’ members and I were talking about the book Karen and I remember one line from...more
It’s the wordless story of a young girl who goes to the beach with her mother/a female adult, and it’s about her, some birds, some beach finds, and some waves/the ocean.
Any young child or any person who took at least one beach trip as a child will perfectly understand the events.
Recently, some Goodreads’ members and I were talking about the book Karen and I remember one line from...more
This gorgeous and wordless picture book tells the story of a little girl's day at the beach. When she first arrives at the ocean, she's a little shy and uncertain as she looks at the daunting wave before her. As she grows more comfortable, she roars at the wave as it recedes into the ocean, and she finally musters up the courage to jump in and splash around. The wave, however, gets the last laugh and drenches her, but she soon forgets as she sees the treasure that washes ashore.
I hav...more
I hav...more
This visually breathtaking book without words, speaks volumes telling a simple story of a young girl enjoying a day at the beach, playing in the waves with the seagulls along for the fun. Only using shades of charcoal and blue, Suzy Lee’s illustrations—full of movement—help readers enjoy the young girl’s fun of splashing around and chasing and being chased by the waves. In fact, by only using blue as the main color, the water becomes it’s own character: the young girl’s playmate.
0-7
Wordless story of a girl playing on the beach taunting the waves, only to be knocked down by them. But of the treasure they left behind! Shells and starfish galore for her to play with and show her mother. Also, I like how her dress (done in pencil grey sketches like the drawing, aside from the blue of the ocean) becomes blue once she is knocked over.
Would have liked it better if several of the two page spreads weren't eaten up by the book's gutter.
Wordless story of a girl playing on the beach taunting the waves, only to be knocked down by them. But of the treasure they left behind! Shells and starfish galore for her to play with and show her mother. Also, I like how her dress (done in pencil grey sketches like the drawing, aside from the blue of the ocean) becomes blue once she is knocked over.
Would have liked it better if several of the two page spreads weren't eaten up by the book's gutter.
Katie Ellis
added it
This book had beautiful illustrations, but it had no words. Most of the time I get really annoyed with books that do not have words in them, but for some reason I didn't mind with this one. The story is basically about a little girl playing with the waves in the ocean and chasing them back and forth. I would definitely "read" this to a child, but only if he or she was under 2 or 3, just so they can look at the pictures and try to see what is going on.
J-Lynn
rated it
A beautiful wordless picture book that captures the adventure of going to the beach for the first time. The mood is light and playful throughout as a young girl plays tag with the ocean and discovers some of the mysteries of the sea.
The two-page, simple illustrations use white, black, and blue acrylic and are full of motion and shape.
Written by a South Korean author, this book speaks to the universality of childhood exploration.
The two-page, simple illustrations use white, black, and blue acrylic and are full of motion and shape.
Written by a South Korean author, this book speaks to the universality of childhood exploration.
The art in this book is so perfect! It's like a small film, but better, because of the contrast of elegant, sure charcoal pencil lines and smudges that define the little girl and seagulls on the beach, and textured, exuberant watercolors that make the ocean, and the way each side interacts over the gutter of the page. It's a wordless picture book, so the art is really all you get and all you need.
An excellent choice in the wordless book genre. A girl tries to be the boss of the ocean, but the waves aren't having it. Truly a delightful story to share and encourage kids to help you tell. When I asked one little guy in a Storytime what he thought the wave was telling the little girl his response was, "oh no you didn't!". I promise you will have as much fun as they will.
Beautiful, and wordless. The reviews lead you to believe this is one of those books that are too beautiful for children, a book not meant for children to like... That's what I was expecting, but was pleasently surprised by the movement and action conveyed in the story. There is a lot for children to like here. best for one on one sharing, preferably after a trip to the seaside.
Illustrator: Suzy Lee
Age: any age, preschool-8
Summary: A little girl goes to the beach and plays in the waves.
Applications/Uses: Supplemental text for an ocean unit, exploration of wordless texts- adding words to the page to tell the story or discussion about stories that don't need words, only pictures, art discussion- only black, blue, and white colors in the story- activities done with these colors.
Themes/Connections: Art, ocean, wordless
Awards: None
Age: any age, preschool-8
Summary: A little girl goes to the beach and plays in the waves.
Applications/Uses: Supplemental text for an ocean unit, exploration of wordless texts- adding words to the page to tell the story or discussion about stories that don't need words, only pictures, art discussion- only black, blue, and white colors in the story- activities done with these colors.
Themes/Connections: Art, ocean, wordless
Awards: None
Without words, Wave captures the pure joy of a childhood day at the beach. From chasing waves, to splashing in the shallows, to collecting shells. Coming from a seaside town this book was the very essence of nostalgia. As for the illustrations, the use of simple line and color leaves the evoked emotional response at the forefront. A fun 'read' for a summer's day.
Charming wordless picture book that tells the story of a young girl's encounter with the waves—from her initial timidity at the new experience, to brash taunting that the wave won't get her, to humble-pie-ing when it *does*--discovering treasures that it washes ashore. In the end, she has found a new friend in the sea and "waves" a fond farewell.
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Suzy Lee is an artist and illustrator, born in Seoul, Korea. She received her BFA in painting from Seoul National University and her MA in Book Arts from Camberwell College of Arts, London. Her books and paintings have won numerous international awards and have been featured in exhibitions worldwide.
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