Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
One White Wishing Stone: A Beach Day Counting Book
Illustrator: Kristina Swarner
For ages 4 to 6
National Geographic, 2006 ISBN: 978-0792251101
A little girl and her mother are spending the day at the beach. It is a beautiful sunny way with blue skies and a calm sea. Soon the little girl is collecting a variety of beach treasures. In tidal pools there are periwinkle shells and a starfish. On the sand there is a “white wishing stone,” bits of driftwood, and seaweed. Just beyond the dunes there are cockleburs.
Then the little girl builds a sandcastle and she decorates it with all her treasures. Of course she knows that the tide will soon come in to claim her castle but that doesn’t matter. The little girl saves two shells and a white stone and later, as she lies in bed, she and her mother wish that they will soon have “another day like this.”
In this delightful picture book a simple, minimal, and gently rhyming text is perfectly paired with beautiful, softly colored mixed media artwork. Readers will have no difficulty transporting themselves, through the words and the pictures, to a beach somewhere where the sun is hot and where the seagulls fly overhead.
