![]() ![]() On first reading, it actually reminded me of John Prater’s Once Upon a Time.īut probing deeper we can ponder upon why the boy is looking out to sea and explore the emotions he may be feeling. ![]() The story’s rhythmic, poetic text mirrors the rhythm of a day and the rhythm of the tides and these cyclical patterns punctuated with the refrain: “it goes like this…” could be used as a model for children’s writing. On the surface, it seems to be a day in the life of a miner’s son. The illustrations provide plenty of open questions as to what the story is about. This is the perfect title for deeper thinking dialogue. Underlining one of the story’s central themes: the choice, or perhaps lack of choice, available to the young boy as he looks towards the horizon, perhaps contemplating his future. Sidney Smith’s exquisite illustrations contrast the luminescent seascape with the black, oppressive underworld where the miners labour. ![]() ![]() The first thing he sees is the sea and he reflects on the knowledge that his father is already at work deep under the ocean working in the coal mine. The first person narrative takes the reader directly into the world of the young boy, who lives in a mining town on the Canadian coast.Įach day when the boy wakes he can hear seagulls, a barking dog, a car door, flowers rustling in the wind. Town is By the Sea is a picturebook set in the 1950s and the story depicts the legacy of a mining town through the eyes of a young boy destined to become a miner in the footsteps of his father and his father’s father. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |