I've found bottles, seaweed, seashells and even an old flip flop at the beach but never an abandoned camera filled with pictures of an underwater universe.
This book is like no other book I have read before. It has no words, just rich colourful illustrations and an extremely engaging story. As a child I spent most of my summers at my cabin which is located in a small fishing community. I spent a lot of time at the beach because, lets face it, there wasn't much else to do. My close friend and I would play pretend and imagine another world that was under the sea (strongly influenced by "The Little Mermaid" of course). As I was viewing this text it reminded me of those days. Anything we found that had floated ashore we would snatch up and construct these elaborate stories about where it came from. Even this summer when I worked at the Ocean Science Centre I would often wonder what the animals in the touch tank would say if they could talk. I'd imagine it would be a lot of complaining (and maybe some screaming).
The boy in this story clearly went to the beach prepared to make some discoveries. He has shovels, a net, binoculars, a snorkel, magnifying glass and even a microscope! When he finds the barnacle covered underwater camera his curiosity drives him to develop the film inside. Upon viewing the photos he discovers a magical underwater world with robot fish, sea star islands, sea shell cities and he can see a picture of who has discovered this camera before him.
The illustrations in this book are absolutely amazing. Even though there are no words the story is very easy to follow and understand. Wiesner has this undeniable skill of being able to smoothly connect each photo with the last in an eye-pleasing, "what-is-going-to-happen-next" kind of fashion. I can see why this book won a Caldecott award and I think it is well deserved. I'm going to have to keep an eye out for this one at the thrift store! Although I find it hard to believe anyone would part with it.
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