You, Me And The Big Blue Sea

Roaring Brook Press, 2002. Hardcover. Fine/very good +. When Mother tells her young son about a sea voyage they took some years earlier she adds, "but you were only a baby, you wouldn't remember." But, as the reader soon discovers, the boy has quite vivid memories--of increasingly hilarious goings-on that made no impression whatsoever on his amusingly oblivious mother and aunt."PreS-Gr. 2. What do little children remember? In this case, quite a lot. Set in the nineteenth century, this charming, frisky tale begins as a mother reminds her son about a trip they took across the ocean. The boy was only a toddler then, so Mum is sure that he doesn't remember much. But as the book proceeds, it's clear that he remembers quite a bit--though he remembers things much differently from the way his mother has fixed them in her mind. Mum, for instance, recalls that the ship pulled away "without any fuss," but the watercolors show a mate falling overboard. Mum thinks "there was nothing to see but the big, blue sea," as the boy points to a man flying off a ship's mast and to a stowaway. Each snippet of text is followed by the words, "But you were a baby. You wouldn't remember," which listeners will take as a fun challenge to find all the slightly hidden secrets of the ship's voyage. This is a smooth blend of text and art, but the pictures are particularly fine, expertly executed, rich with color, and full of surprises." -- Ilene Cooper, Booklist. Book is fine with mild edge wear. The dust jacket is very good with a small closed tear lower front edge, a small gash on the upper spine and rubbed at the edges of the spines. The front cover lower edge shows a tiny sliver of white from rubbing and the surface shows smudging. The picture is a scan of the actual book.