A little boy builds a ship to honor his late grandfather and sets sail for the magical place where ocean meets sky from his grandfather's story. The Washington Post From the creators of the gorgeous bestseller The Night Gardener comes a stunning new picture book about a young boy who sets sail to find a place his grandfather told him about.

On what would have been his grandfather’s ninetieth birthday, he finds himself missing his grandfather’s stories and wisdom. Finn travels across oceans meeting wonderful ocean creatures, passing islands made of books, climbing on giant shells and eventually floating up to where the ocean meets the sky where he sees a familiar face watching over him. This is a gorgeous, fantastical story of the enduring bond of a child and his grandfather and a dreamy glimpse of what might lay beyond. Sentimental story, nice enough, but there's little there about Grandpa or the boy's relationship to him, really. They would also only drop off a case of books and leave us to run it – it was so lovely to have you on hand to chat to the children and recommend them books, as well as the small (but appreciated!Finn remembers the stories his grandfather told him about – a place where the ocean meets the sky, where whales and jellyfish soar and birds and castles float. Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions.

By the way, it is worth mentioning that Finn, his mother, and his grandfather all have Asian facial features and the dinner Finn wakes up to is a traditional dumpling dish. It was a bit of an emotional read too since I lost my grandfather earlier this year, who was in the same age range as Finn’s, but I didn’t get to see him to say bye. The artwork so easily conveys the magic of this place with cloud pictures, giant sea creatures, The Library islands with its bookish birds along with air and sea vessels of every kind converging there. Here's how special this book is: my toddler, who has never experienced the death of a loved one and therefore has no idea about the process of grief and healing, understands what is going on in this book.It’s exactly the kind of book I sometimes give as a gift to a friend (of course, after reading it myself, first). The story itself is emotionally resonant, without ever feeling overdone or manipulative, and touches on issues of death, grief and memory, as well as the power of dreams. On the day his grandfather would have been ninety, Finn builds himself a ship and sets sail to find that place, mentioned many times by his elderly relative, where the ocean meets the sky. But building is hard work, so Finn falls asleep afterwards, and his dreams take him to all sorts of wondrous places. Here they follow the story of Finn, a young boy who is missing his (presumably deceased) grandfather.

It also has illustrations of other creatures and items that appear where ocean meets sky that are done up in gold. together with two magnificent whales, numerous other sea (and air) creatures, and various other conveyances, from sailing ships to air balloons. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. The Fan Brothers are significant, award-winning author-illustrators and children can continue to enjoy their books following their studies of this text. As someone who grew up in a time when Asians were very rarely represented in English-language picture books (other than as oddities), and even more rarely represented in English-language picture books created by authors of Asian heritage, I absolutely loved this unobtrusive integration of Asian characters and Asian cultural elements into the book.I was at my last school for 4 years and we had ********* book fairs every term – and every term, I was disappointed by the narrow range of books. My class of 5 year olds absolutely loved ‘The Barnabus Project’ (and I loved engaging with a story that was emotionally moving) so had to try something else by the Fan Brothers. The framework is that a boy dreams that he journeys across the sea in a boat that he built in honor of his grandfather, now deceased, to the place where the ocean meets the sky. He would have been ninety if he was still around, and in his honour, Finn builds a boat for a journey they had planned together.

There are certainly some beautiful illustrations within the book, but they're not all as magical as what's depicted on the outside. Each stage of the journey is beautifully illustrated in serene, glowing colours, full of detail and delight. This book is that perfect combination of imagination, whimsy and a sense of myth grounded in reality. The unit begins by introducing the authors to the children and highlighting the power of bookmaking/storytelling.The story is an ambitious blend of light and heavy, realistic and dreamy: it concerns a small boy, Finn, whose grandfather has recently passed away in his old age. Every time he looks out his window it’s a constant reminder of the stories his grandfather told him about the place where the ocean meets the sky. That is, I was frustrated until I began to slowly but surely realise and understand that first and foremost Ocean Meets Sky is obviously meant to be a mostly illustrative journey, that it is almost totally picture oriented, with the accompanying text providing in my opinion simply a bit of supplemental verbal guidance. Yourself and Bob are much cherished in our booky world and I personally really appreciate everything that you do. You guys were so fab and Dawn was such a lovely presence in the schools - I will absolutely be in touch next time I'm in your neck of the woods.