Ocean meets Sky by Terry Fan and Eric Fan

The first sentence of Ocean meets sky contains one very powerful word:

Finn lived by the sea,
and the sea lived by him.
"It's a good day for sailing,"
his grandfather would have said.

Did you hear/see/read the word - would? Sadly we can guess his grandfather is no longer with him. That possibly Finn's grandfather has died. Would - is a powerful word - past tense. There is so much longing in these four lines. Finn is in his room and we can see a photo of grandfather, a old hat and a small handmade toy sailing boat.There is a hint of the sepia which we see on the next page. The page turn takes us to times from the past. Grandfather is talking to young Finn, sharing his stories of the place where the ocean meets the sky. There are small treasures on the table - shells, a pipe, a carved bird and grandfathers spectacles. On the facing page the time shifts back to the present.

"His grandfather would have been ninety years old today."

Grandfather is gone but he is not forgotten. His treasures are still lying on the table. The image takes the viewer one step back and allows us to see more of the room -  a model of an airship, a painting of a hot air balloon, a ship in a bottle and Finn himself outside sitting beside the sea. Finn decides to make a boat, the one he and his grandfather had planned together. He gathers all sorts of odds and ends and build his boat then Finn climbs inside to take a nap. When he wakes up the boat is rocking the the adventure is about to begin.

He meets a fish who offers to take Finn to the place where the ocean meets the sky.  The huge golden fish has a face just like his grandfather.

The voyage takes them to the Library Islands "where hundreds of bookish birds were roosting."

Then they explore an island of giant shells, they see giant jellyfish floating just under the surface of the water and finally they reach the magical place where the ocean meets the sky. This is where the story magic really begins for the reader as we silently travel with Finn through a wondrous landscape leading to the place where Finn can finally say goodbye to his beloved grandfather.  Finn hears his mother calling him and in the tradition of Where the Wild things are, she has delicious warm dumplings waiting for him. These are the same dumplings his grandfather used to make.

With a rare sense of silence and wonder this is a story to pore over, to share and to return to again and again. Love Reading 4 Kids

This grand adventure stirs imaginations while also celebrating a loving inter generational relationship and providing comfort and closure after loss. School Library Journal

Inspiration from Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are and David Wiesner’s Flotsam can be seen in both story and art. However, the Fan Brothers’ approach to loss, healing, and inter generational relationships makes this a unique and refreshing offering. Kirkus Star review

Go back and look more closely at the library islands. I adore all the book references - The Call of the Wild; The Secret Garden; The Tempest; Great Expectations; The Wizard of Oz; The Odyssey; and the Fan Brothers own book - The Night Gardener. If you are sharing this book with a group of older students I recommend you spend some time on the page with the moon jellies. The perspective where we look down on the boat, the luminescence, and the opaque transparent jellyfish are simply breathtaking.

I will admit to skipping past this book on many of my library visits because my (incorrect) impression was that this was a long (possibly) complex picture book.  It is complex but also easy to read and contains a beautiful emotional exploration of grief. Ocean meets the sky was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal in 2019.

I am really keen to read another book illustrated by the Fan Brothers - Scarecrow.  It is quite expensive here in Australia and very hard to source but I do have it on my wish list.