Hello Ocean/Hola Mar

Hear the roar of the waves. See the sun sparkling off the water. Feel the sand beneath your toes. Taste the salt in the air. Smell the drying kelp. In simple, carefully chosen phrases, Pam Muñoz Ryan’s bilingual book (Charlesbridge, 2003) explores the seashore through a young girl’s five senses in beautiful rhyming text read in English and Spanish by Sonia Amador. The narration is enhanced by background music and sound effects, and Mark Astrella’s illustrations are realistic and stunning. The Spanish text is lovely, maintaining the feel and rhyme of the English version without translating it word-for-word. The text placement on the page results in the narrator occasionally losing the flow and rhyme as she reads each page individually while the phrases actually extend across two-page spreads. In one instance, the narrator seems to say “alas” where the text reads “olas.” This is just a very minor flaw in an otherwise beautiful production. This exceptional book has multiple applications in teaching literary elements such as alliteration, onomatopoeia, and personification, and would make a great listening center.–Teresa Bateman, Brigadoon Elementary, Federal Way, WA