Bookology Magazine

The Global Ocean

The glob­al ocean holds 97% of the earth’s water, with salt­wa­ter cov­er­ing 70% of the planet’s sur­face.1,2 In fact, sci­en­tists esti­mate that 50% of all known species live in salt­wa­ter ecosys­tems.3 While vast, the vital­i­ty of the frag­ile glob­al ocean is at risk by human activ­i­ty. Pic­ture books can fos­ter a deep­er appre­ci­a­tion for the “Earth’s beat­ing heart.”4 From ocean shores to the depths of the sea, these five Calde­cott award books trans­port read­ers to this extra­or­di­nary environment.

One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey
Time of Wonder by Robert McCloskey

In the 1950s, author-illus­tra­tor Robert McCloskey set a high bar for salt­wa­ter sto­ries with One Morn­ing in Maine (1953 Calde­cott Hon­or) and Time of Won­der (1958 Calde­cott Medal). The books are an homage to the sum­mers that McCloskey and his fam­i­ly spent on a small island near Deer Isle in Penob­scot Bay. The young pro­tag­o­nists in both titles — named in the first book, unnamed in the sec­ond — are based on his daugh­ters Sal­ly (Sarah) and Jane.5,6 Water lit­er­al­ly sur­rounds their home and is cen­tral to their activities.

One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey
illus­tra­tion © copy­right Robert McCloskey from One Morn­ing in Maine,
pub­lished by Viking Books for Young Read­ers, 1952
Time of Wonder by Robert McCloskey
illus­tra­tion © Robert McCloskey from A Time of Won­der,
pub­lished by Viking Books for Young Read­ers, 1957

In the sketch-like lith­o­graphs7 of One Morn­ing in Maine, the land­scape and sea are drawn with a loos­er line than the more detailed inte­ri­or scenes and expres­sive char­ac­ters. In ear­ly edi­tions, the real­is­tic draw­ings are print­ed in blue ink, fur­ther link­ing the sto­ry with the water. In con­trast, the full-col­or impres­sion­is­tic illus­tra­tions in Time of Won­der are ren­dered in casein paints,8 an opaque paint made from milk pro­teins.9,10 The nat­ur­al hues of most­ly pas­tel tones reflect the seren­i­ty of the sea, as well as its feroc­i­ty with an impend­ing storm. Both books give read­ers a glimpse into McCloskey’s fam­i­ly, the famil­iar sum­mer com­mu­ni­ty, and his fond­ness for the wild beau­ty of north­ern coastal Maine.

Hot Dog by Doug SalatiWild­ly dif­fer­ent from McCloskey’s bucol­ic, now nos­tal­gic sto­ries, author-illus­tra­tor Doug Salati drops read­ers into the noise and chaos of New York City in Hot Dog, the 2023 Calde­cott Medal book. The pic­ture book fol­lows an increas­ing­ly uncom­fort­able dachs­hund as it traipses about the city with its own­er on a hot sum­mer day. When the dog stops in the mid­dle of a cross­walk and refus­es to budge, the com­pas­sion­ate own­er for­goes her errands, and the two land at a beach on Fire Island.

In a car­toon style, Salati uses page design and col­or to con­trast the city and beach scenes. In the city, the ver­ti­cal pan­els con­vey a sense of being trapped by the tall build­ings and fre­net­ic activ­i­ties. Diag­o­nal lines with­in many pan­els and the use of red, orange, and yel­low gouache11 height­en the ener­gy. Here, some sketch­es of peo­ple are not paint­ed but drawn in pen­cil,12 giv­ing images a greater sense of con­ges­tion. The lines extend beyond the hand-drawn bor­ders, adding to the har­ried tone.

Hot Dog by Doug Salati
illus­tra­tion © Doug Salati from Hot Dog, pub­lished by Knopf, 2022

After the woman hails a taxi for her and the dog, the pan­els shift to hor­i­zon­tal. By the time the pair are on the train and board a fer­ry, the pan­els lose their out­lines and often extend across the two-page spread, impart­ing a sense of free­dom. Col­ors shift to greens, blues, and mut­ed neu­tral hues, giv­ing a much-need­ed sense of calm. On a rare dou­ble-page spread, our canine pro­tag­o­nist runs with aban­don. Pan­els return as the dachs­hund col­lects rocks, explores the surf, and encoun­ters a seal, while the woman looks on from beneath her large umbrel­la. The gold­en rose light of the set­ting sun envelops the pair as they pre­pare to leave.

Hot Dog by Doug Salati
illus­tra­tion © Doug Salati from Hot Dog, pub­lished by Knopf, 2022
Hot Dog by Doug Salati
illus­tra­tion © Doug Salati from Hot Dog, pub­lished by Knopf, 2022

Upon their arrival in the city, the deep blue dark­ness and a breeze refresh the cityscape. Back at the apart­ment, the final three illus­tra­tions are full-bleed, half- or full-page spreads as our cool canine com­pan­ion is “ready to leap / into a deep ocean sleep.”

Like McCloskey, Salati based his book on per­son­al expe­ri­ence. Ten years before the book was pub­lished, the author-illus­tra­tor joined friends on Fire Island for a week­end. The hosts had a dachs­hund that delight­ed in its time off-leash on the beach. On Salati’s trek back to the city, he start­ed mak­ing thumb­nail sketch­es of the dog. Some of those draw­ings were lat­er adapt­ed for Hot Dog.13

Hello, Lighthouse by Sophie BlackallWhile Doug Salati invites read­ers to the shore, author-illus­tra­tor Sophie Black­all sum­mons read­ers out into the waters to a light­house “[o]n the high­est rock of a tiny island at the edge of the world.” In the open­ing full-bleed dou­ble-page spread of Hel­lo Light­house, the 2019 Calde­cott Medal book, Black­all intro­duces a light­house “send­ing its light out to sea, / guid­ing the ships on their way.” The light shines in a diag­o­nal line to a ten­der, a sup­ply ship, approach­ing the island as gen­tle waves flow from green to rose in a repeat­ing mar­quise pat­tern. The ten­der holds valu­able car­go, the lighthouse’s next keep­er who arrives on the fol­low­ing page.

Hello Lighthouse by Sophie Blackall
illus­tra­tion © Sophie Black­all from Hel­lo, Light­house, pub­lished by Lit­tle, Brown, 2018
Hello Lighthouse by Sophie Blackall
illus­tra­tion © Sophie Black­all from Hel­lo, Light­house,
pub­lished by Lit­tle, Brown, 2018

Through­out the book, Black­hall con­tin­ues to alter­nate spreads from exte­ri­or to inte­ri­or views in an almost-naïf real­is­tic style: “I decid­ed to keep the stead­fast light­house in one place and have every­thing change around it – weath­er and sea­sons and light and time. And the inte­ri­ors I drew in cir­cu­lar vignettes – to echo the round rooms of the light­house, the con­fined spaces which begin to expand through the book with love and life.”14 Indeed, after a time the iso­lat­ed keep­er is joined by his wife; lat­er, the two wel­come a child. The spare text and Chi­nese ink and water­col­or illus­tra­tions15 rein­force the chal­lenges of light­house life. In addi­tion to the rig­or of dai­ly work and night­time respon­si­bil­i­ties, the keep­er and his spouse respond to the unex­pect­ed, sav­ing ship­wrecked sailors, con­tend­ing with ill­ness, and birthing a baby.

Hello Lighthouse by Sophie Blackall
illus­tra­tion © Sophie Black­all from Hel­lo, Light­house,
pub­lished by Lit­tle, Brown, 2018

The light­house is both the set­ting of and a char­ac­ter in the sto­ry, strong and reli­able, while the ever-chang­ing sea cre­ates sus­pense. Black­all depicts the ocean in vary­ing states, from dap­pled rip­ples to white-capped swells to crash­ing waves; some­times, the water is obscured by fog and ice.

Like the cir­cu­lar motifs that run through the book, the sto­ry itself is a cir­cle, end­ing almost as it begins. Black­all returns to an aer­i­al per­spec­tive as the ten­der leaves the island with the keep­er and his fam­i­ly, the light­house­’s new machine-oper­at­ed light focused on them. A gate­fold on the fol­low­ing page reveals a long image that links the light­house to the coast, where a light glows from a house. The final word­less illus­tra­tion brings read­ers inside the thresh­old of the family’s new home, which holds memen­tos of the light­house, as the trio shines their lantern towards the island.

Flotsam by David WiesnerAnoth­er book that bridges the shore and the sea is Flot­sam, by author-illus­tra­tor David Wies­ner. A fam­i­ly day at the beach takes an unex­pect­ed turn when a boy finds an under­wa­ter cam­era that has washed ashore. Wies­ner skill­ful­ly melds real­i­ty and fan­ta­sy in this word­less story.

The boy’s curios­i­ty about the cam­era derails his beach activ­i­ties when he brings the film to town to be devel­oped. The processed pho­tos stun and delight the boy, as well as read­ers. The cam­era has cap­tured many sur­pris­ing under­sea scenes, even chil­dren from past decades who have snapped pho­tos of them­selves. To tell this mul­ti­lay­ered sto­ry and add “visu­al vari­ety,”16 Wies­ner uses sin­gle- and dou­ble-page spreads and framed pan­els. “The eye scans the mul­ti-pan­el page quick­ly. The detail-rich dou­ble-page spread is a place where the eye can linger and spend time slow­ly explor­ing.”17 Fur­ther, the sin­gle-page pho­tos with white mar­gins are set upon black borders.

Flotsam by David Wiesner
illus­tra­tion © David Wies­ner from Flot­sam, pub­lished by Clar­i­on Books, 2006

Bright col­ors dom­i­nate the book, which sur­prised Wies­ner as the real­is­tic water­col­or illus­tra­tions18 took shape. Wies­ner explains, “I’ve spent most of my life run­ning away from bright col­ors, but there was no escape, so I dove into the bathing suits, T‑shirts, buck­ets, shov­els, and beach tow­els. The cul­mi­na­tion of all this col­or was the deci­sion to fill the cov­er of the book with a close-up of a red snap­per.”19

In his 2007 Calde­cott Medal book, Wies­ner beck­ons read­ers to observe their world care­ful­ly, from the intense eye of the red snap­per on the front dust jack­et to a star­tling human eye and her­mit crab star­ing out from the first page of the sto­ry. Through­out the book, the eyes of a vari­ety of crea­tures abound. Most impor­tant is the eye of the mys­te­ri­ous cam­era that has divulged many secrets of the sea to the curi­ous young pro­tag­o­nist, giv­ing him and read­ers much to ponder.

Flotsam by David Wiesner
illus­tra­tion © David Wies­ner from Flot­sam, pub­lished by Clar­i­on Books, 2006
Flotsam by David Wiesner
illus­tra­tion © David Wies­ner from Flot­sam, pub­lished by Clar­i­on Books, 2006

In these Calde­cott books span­ning sev­er­al decades, the author-illus­tra­tors share their won­der of the sea and the trea­sures and plea­sures it holds. By draw­ing atten­tion to the glob­al ocean and its fragili­ty, pic­ture books can help nur­ture a new gen­er­a­tion of envi­ron­men­tal stew­ards to ensure that the ecosys­tem remains healthy into the future.

Selected Ocean-Inspired Caldecott Picture Books

Klassen, Jon. This Is Not My Hat. Somerville, MA: Can­dlewick, 2012. (2013 Calde­cott Medal)

Lion­ni, Leo. Swim­my. New York: Pan­theon, 1963. (1964 Calde­cott Honor)

Mac­Don­ald, Gold­en. The Lit­tle Island. Illus­trat­ed by Leonard Weis­gard. New York: Dou­ble­day, 1946. (1947 Calde­cott Medal) [Note: Gold­en Mac­Don­ald is a pseu­do­nym for Mar­garet Wise Brown.]

For a deep dive into fresh­wa­ter Calde­cott award books, see the Bookol­o­gy col­umn “Fresh­wa­ter Pearls.”

Picture Books Cited

Black­all, Sophie. Hel­lo Light­house. New York: Lit­tle, Brown, 2018.

McCloskey, Robert. One Morn­ing in Maine. New York: Viking, 1952.

McCloskey, Robert. Time of Won­der. New York: Viking, 1957.

Salati, Doug. Hot Dog. New York: Knopf, 2022.

Cies­ner, David. Flot­sam. New York: Clar­i­on, 2006.

Notes
  1. Rochelle Strauss, The Glob­al Ocean, illus­trat­ed by Natasha Dono­van (Toron­to: Kids Can Press, 2022), 6.
  2. “10 Cool Facts about Salt Water,” Ocean Adven­ture, Catali­na Sea Camp, 31 July 2023.
  3. “10 Cool Facts about Salt Water.”
  4. Strauss, Glob­al Ocean, 6.
  5. “Robert McCloskey (Sep­tem­ber 15, 1914 – June 30, 2003),” Her­itage Hall Muse­um, Her­itage Hall Muse­um, accessed 29 March 2025.
  6. Elis­a­beth Egan, “One Morn­ing in Maine, 225 Peo­ple Went to the Library,” New York Times (New York, NY), 25 August 2023.
  7. Asso­ci­a­tion for Library Ser­vice to Chil­dren (ALSC), The New­bery & Calde­cott Awards: A Guide to the Medal and Hon­or Books (Chica­go: Amer­i­can Library Asso­ci­a­tion, 2020), 153.
  8. ALSC, New­bery & Calde­cott Awards, 149.
  9. “Casein — An Over­looked Medi­um,” The Artist’s Road, Hulsey Trusty Designs, L.L.C., accessed 30 March 2025.
  10. “Casein Paint,” Paints, Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff, 2025.
  11. Doug Salati, Hot Dog (New York: Knopf, 2022).
  12. Eri­ca Rand Sil­ver­man, “Mak­ing HOT DOG: Artist, Edi­tor, and Art Direc­tor,” Sti­mo­la Live, 8 Decem­ber 2022, video, 60:02.
  13. Julie Daniel­son, “Hel­lo Light­house: A Vis­it with Sophie Black­all,” Sev­en Impos­si­ble Things Before Break­fast (blog), 17 April 2018.
  14. ALSC, New­bery & Calde­cott Awards, 113.
  15. Sophie Black­all, Hel­lo Light­house (New York: Lit­tle, Brown, 2018).
  16. David Wies­ner, “Calde­cott Medal Accep­tance Speech: Of Flot­sam, Jet­sam, and Anoth­er Calde­cott,” Chil­dren & Libraries 5, no. 2 (Summer/Fall 2007): 11.
  17. Wies­ner, “Calde­cott Medal Accep­tance Speech”: 11 – 12.
  18. Wies­ner, David. Flot­sam. New York: Clar­i­on, 2006.
  19. Wies­ner, “Calde­cott Medal Accep­tance Speech”: 12
Bibliography

“10 Cool Facts about Salt Water.” Ocean Adven­ture. Catali­na Sea Camp. 31 July 2023.

Asso­ci­a­tion for Library Ser­vice to Chil­dren (ALSC). The New­bery & Calde­cott Awards: A Guide to the Medal and Hon­or Books. Chica­go: Amer­i­can Library Asso­ci­a­tion, 2020.

Black­all, Sophie. Hel­lo Light­house. New York: Lit­tle, Brown, 2018.

“Casein — An Over­looked Medi­um.” The Artist’s Road. Hulsey Trusty Designs, L.L.C.. Accessed 30 March 2025.

“Casein Paint.” Paints. Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff. 2025.

Daniel­son, Julie. “Hel­lo Light­house: A Vis­it with Sophie Black­all.” Sev­en Impos­si­ble Things Before Break­fast (blog). 17 April 2018.

Egan, Elis­a­beth. “One Morn­ing in Maine, 225 Peo­ple Went to the Library.” New York Times. New York: New York Times Com­pa­ny, 2023.

“Robert McCloskey (Sep­tem­ber 15, 1914 – June 30, 2003).” Her­itage Hall Muse­um. Her­itage Hall Muse­um. Accessed 29 March 2025.

Salati, Doug. Hot Dog. New York: Knopf, 2022.

Sil­ver­man, Eri­ca Rand. “Mak­ing HOT DOG: Artist, Edi­tor, and Art Direc­tor.” Sti­mo­la Live. 8 Decem­ber 2022. Video, 60:02

Strauss, Rochelle. The Glob­al Ocean. Illus­trat­ed by Natasha Dono­van. Toron­to: Kids Can Press, 2022.

Wies­ner, David.“Caldecott Medal Accep­tance Speech: Of Flot­sam, Jet­sam, and Anoth­er Calde­cott.” Chil­dren & Libraries 5, no. 2 (Summer/Fall 2007): 10 – 12.

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Tricia Springstubb
Tricia Springstubb
1 month ago

What a great choice of books and such great sources to check out (I espe­cial­ly adore Hot Dog). I grew up by the ocean and miss it very much – Lake Erie is a (great) lake but not the same at all.

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