My Life with the Wave

by Catherine Cowan, Octavio Paz, Mark Buehner (Illustrator)

My first trip to the seashore, one wave tore away from the sea. She caught my hand, and we raced away together across the sand. Based on a story by Nobel Prize laureate Octavio Paz, this delightful tale of a boy and his pet wave is charmingly retold with beautiful new illustrations. See if you can find the hidden cat, dog, mouse, whale, and sea horse in almost every picture! Ages 3 – 8

Genres: Picture Books, Fantasy, Fiction, Childrens, Nature, Adventure

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Xiaoxiao Zhu]

What an amazing picturebook! My Life With the Wave is a far-out adventure that manages an undercurrent about human relation-ships with nature. The imaginative My Life With the Wave offers as its theme a subtle reminder of the difficulty of taming or even coexisting with nature. Beyond that, it has a story --- an element too often missing in children's picturebooks.

As far as I'm concerned, the wave looks like the little boy's pet. Though they spent several pleasant days, the little boy feel tired and abhorrent of the wave. This mentality is very popular among children nowadays, children all love the new and loathe the old, they just hope to get things what they want temporarily and soon change to the next new thing.

Finally, the little boy wants to take clouds as his new pet back home, but he never know that clouds have lightning, thunder and rainstorm!

[Sarah Threlkeld]

Clever idea, but I lost interest because there was so much darn text. I don't think most kids would stick with this story until the end.

[emyrose8]

4.5- A book packed with personification (and a chance for an inference at the end). Very poetically written! The illustrations are excellent as well.

[Valeria Manzano]

Chiquitito, pero quiero comenzar a normalizar que estas lecturas sí son eso, lecturas, por más cuentos chiquititos que sean o que sean para la escuela.
Nunca he tenido problema con leer a hombres, pero ya llevaba una temporada en la que lo único que leía era mujeres, y después de un tiempo uno se da cuenta qué diferente, sin tachar en bueno o malo. Digo esto porque se nota que lo escribe un hombre, aunque no supiera que fuera así. La manera en que se refiere a la ola, lo ajeno e intenso que se siente. Digo esto no en afán de crítica mala, sino de un contraste que me parece muy interesante.
De un tiempo para acá traigo la metáfora del mar muy a flor de piel, y este cuento fue una casualidad muy adecuada. Describe de manera hermosa lo que podría decirse, es el amor, y las diferentes formas que como el agua, puede tomar; ola que revuelca y a veces lleva al naufragio, o marea que acaricia, sumerge e invita.
Amo la idea del mar y la inmensidad de maneras en la que, como el mar, puede abordarse.

[Rani]

#Sea #Ocean When you bring a #wave home, you have to #live with it! #YoungReaders #PictureBook #BookReview #ChildrensBooks #amreading #Imagination #Novelty

[CreateEveryday Classroom]

brilliant book. constantly requested to be read aloud.

[Felipe CZ]

The original story by Octavio Paz is incredible, while this is a good way to introduce children to literature.

[Amber Orvin]

This book was fun to read and I highly recommend all ages to read it❗️❤️😊

[Diane]

A young boy goes on vacation to the ocean and brings home a wave as his new “pet.” As expected, the wave creates havoc in its new setting with her changing moods.

[Michiyo Yoshimoto]

I

[Kristin]

Weird. Great illustrations, though

[Vianka Carrasco]

Me dejó un mal sabor de boca pero igualmente fue fascinante para mí xd

[Natalie Sawyer]

A trip to the seashore gets a boy a new pet wave. He brings home a wave and encounters different adventures with his wave. This weird story tells of a boys obsession with waves. The wave brings light, air, blue and green reflections, blackness, bitterness, grayness, coldness and many other things. The boy danced with, told stories and secrets to and played with his wave as if it were a friend. Just like all friendships, the boy has ups, downs, postives and negatives wit his wave. As the wave grows cold and icy, the boy brings his wave back to sea and pledges to go to other places to bring back other types of nature, such as mountains. Colorful, interesting pictures that lay out the story nicely.

[Matthew]

This was an odd story. I'm not going to lie. But if you can get past the idea of a wave being very "unwavelike" in many respects, then you'll like this book. The wave kind of dances between the friend that never leaves and a wave that acts like waves do, which is kind of a vague way to describe it but it's the best I can come up with. I've never read anything by the original author of this story, but this was fairly enjoyable. The bond between the boy and the wave and the gradual realization that being roommates with a wave just isn't working out are the core of this story. It's fun if you can handle the mind bending premise.

[Vivian]

We shared this imaginative piece, delightfully illustrated, with children ages 5-8 in our summer library craft program. It is fun to chat with this age group before diving in to the story. The back cover flap includes biographical snippets of the book's creators -- Octavio Paz, Catherine Cowan, and Mark Buehner. I read these blurbs before the program and proceeded to introduce these people to the group. Exposing children to people who act upon ideas-- people much like them-- helps to inspire them to think about themselves as writers and artists, too.

[Bhunter2012]

Just like the article described for tuesdays lesson plan, a little boy was in need of something better, then grows and realizes that what he wanted was there all along. His parents were in the story saying no and were a little terrified and in the end they were right about the big bad wave. He describes his house as a dark place with lots of dust, and at first the wave brought light to those dark spaces, but once he grew up and realized he was wrong he found out that the darkness wasn't so bad.

[Lindsey]

A boy brings home a wave from the ocean. The story shows the positives and negative sides of nature. A fun look at how moody and fun a wave can be.

This is a picture book retelling of one of Octavio Paz's stories. Of course now more than ever, I'd be interested in reading the original story. I've never read any of his fiction, only his poetry.

[Alice]

Fantastic Pictures...of course can't go wrong with Mark Buehner illustrations. The story stirs the imagination ,but I am no fun...I get wondering...why isn't the whole house wet!? And why isn't there mold and damaged things cause by the water. Now of course it is fun to think about taking a wave home. I love the sea...but it isn't something you can take home.....I know...no imagination.....

[Janelle Aieta]

Great, poetic, surrealistic text with exciting illustrations. Each illustrations has littl hidden pictures in it which is an excellent way to get children to look more closely at the art. My 3 yr old daughter loves it. Makes me want to read the Octavio Paz story this is adapted from.

[Ylka]

The illustrations in this book are incredible. I sure wish I could paint water with as fluidly, translucently and dynamically as the illustrator does. An incredible feat. Read it even if you don't have children.

[Katrina]

A child befriends a wave at the seashore and brings her home. The language in this book is beautiful and lyrical. The book was originally a short story by Octavio Paz and then adapted for children by Catherine Cowan. Part the Big Read in 2009.

[Annamarie]

Cute book - beautiful illustrations.

[Donna]

Really amazing illustrations. Strange story though. Were drugs involved? I'm such a cynic.

[Bri Zabriskie]

attended a class where the illustrator read the book to us and explained his pictures. So cute!

[Amanda_DJ n' Zac]

A rather long book before bed, but Daddy read this one to DJ and Zac. :)

[Deenya]

Magical realism... wonderful.

[Gryphon]

A most intriguing unique read.

It is about a boy that takes a wave home as a pet.

This book would be excellent for a teacher that is teaching about the ocean. Water is a temperamental element!

[Jennifer]

I really enjoyed this picture book. This is one of my favourite picture books.

Pictures within pictures, very descriptive and students just love this book as a 'read to'.

[Ig-88]

Ut velit fuga. Quisquam exercitationem quos. Voluptatem est autem id eum itaque expedita.

[Jennifer]

I love this book and enjoy reading it to my class each year. Some things are best unchanged. You can't take the beach home with you... it just isn' t the same.