For the pictures are not only truly aesthetically marvellous and visually rich, they also evocatively and engagingly show young Finn’s dreamlike sailing journey to where according to his deceased grandfather the ocean meets the sky as both an absolute visual delight and equally paying homage to the memory of his grandfather, full of whimsy, full of magic, full of unbridled imagination (with the added sweetness that upon waking from his sailing dream, Finn is told that he and his family will be dining on his grandfather’s special dumplings). 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.Īnd indeed, not really all that much if at all focussing (except for some textual reassurance if required) on the Fan brothers’ printed words but rather on their large and mostly glowingly luminous illustrations has made me not only appreciate but also absolutely love and cherish Ocean Meets Sky. Ocean Meets Sky by the Fan Brothers was a finalist for the 2018 Governor General's Literary Award for young people's literature - illustrated books.When I first paged through Terry and Eric Fan’s Ocean Meets Sky, I do have to admit I was a trifle annoyed that the Fans’ presented narrative is rendered so simplistically and with much verbal sparseness. ( From Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers) He'll build his own ship and sail out to find this magical place himself! And when he arrives, maybe, just maybe, he'll find something he didn't know he was looking for. Finn's grandfather is gone now but Finn knows the perfect way to honour him. Where whales and jellyfish soar and birds and castles float. 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.

Finn lives by the sea and the sea lives by him. 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… the spot where the ocean meets the sky.

Ocean meets sky