Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers: AWARENESS TOUR: Sea Without a Shore by Barb Rosenstock, Illustrated by Katherine Roy

Today, we welcome The Children's Book Review as their latest AWARENESS TOUR makes its way through the blogosphere. The star of the show is a Non-Fiction Picture Book about the beauty and majesty of the sea, revealing how the smallest of organisms can have the most extraordinary and far reaching effects beyond our wildest dreams. Come for the journey between the pages, but stay for the special AUTHOR INTERVIEW to catch a glimpse behind the pen, and be sure to enter the tour wide giveaway for your chance to win!

Sea Without a Shore

Barb Rosenstock

Illustrated by

Katherine Roy

9781324016076

W. W. Norton

About the book...

A single piece of seaweed buoys a fascinating ecosystem in this nonfiction picture book from award-winning creators Barb Rosenstock and Katherine Roy.

From bryozoans and snails to shrimps, eels, swordfish, and whales, the Sargasso Sea provides a home to countless types of marine life, thanks to the prevalence of microalgae called sargassum. Following a single blade of this extraordinary seaweed as it grows and spreads, readers see what it provides for the sea’s organisms: a base for hydroids and tube worms to filter and feed, shelter for anemones and nudibranchs and their nutritious waste, hunting grounds for crabs and amphipods, and a source of nourishment and protection for the fish, birds, whales, and reptiles that feed on these smaller creatures.

Through a widening scope on this intricate interdependence, Barb Rosenstock celebrates one of our planet’s most diverse and important ecosystems and the unassuming seaweed that sustains it. Gorgeously illustrated with Katherine Roy’s rich, eye-catching artwork, Sea Without a Shore is as fluid and rhythmic as the currents that shape this tidal home.

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🌊 INTERVIEW with Author Barb Rosenstock 🌊

1) Fast Five Intro... five facts about me!

I was born on April Fool’s Day (if you know me, that says everything!).

I have lived my entire life in the Chicago area.

I was a musical theater nerd in high school and still love to sing and dance.

I love my family first and the smell of lilacs and marigolds second (or maybe eating pizza).

I never met an author until I was an older adult, and never thought someone like me could be a writer.

2) What inspired you to write about the Sargasso Sea?

I tripped on the idea. Seriously. I was walking with my grandson on the beach in the Dominican Republic and tripped on some seaweed on the beach. While pulling it from my feet, I noticed it had what we thought were berries and searched on my phone. I learned that I had tripped on some rotting Sargassum, and that much of it was created in the Sargasso Sea…and a year later, I was still fascinated by this place and its creatures.

3) Of all the formats out there, what about the Picture Book drew your heart?

It’s the idea of specificity and teamwork. A picture book requires an author to be intensely specific in their use of language. Writing a picture book is like working a puzzle. The work also requires the author to leave room in the story for the illustrator, even before they know who that person is! Great picture books are ART DEPENDENT, the story is told half (or less) through words and half (or more) through art. I love that words and art working together create something more than either could have created alone.

4) Reading is subjective, and everyone gets something different out of the experience, but if you could have readers walk away with one message from SEA WITHOUT A SHORE, what would it be?

That every creature on earth, no matter how strange, no matter how far away, has a home, and that those homes deserve protection.

5) Any words of advice for writers in the making in our reading audience?

I used to think that I couldn’t be a good writer because I could never get my words as perfect as the writing in the books I read. But, what you see on the page when you are reading your favorite authors is the result of thousands of hours and typically dozens of people working together. I think sometimes trying to make “good” writing, stops young people from writing at all. At the start, you are not trying to write a “finished book,” you are learning how to get an idea or experience in your head down on paper. And, just like sports or dance or music, writing requires lots of practice and lots of “do overs.” The drafts of the most famous books by the most famous authors STINK! All us authors stink at writing, until we do it over (and over!), get help, and keep trying to say what it is we have to say. Because YOUR experiences, and what YOU have to say about them is important for everyone to hear.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Barb Rosenstock is the author of several children’s books, including The Noisy Paint Box, which received a Caldecott Honor. She lives in Chicago, Illinois.

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ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR

Katherine Roy is the creator of the Sibert Honor Book Neighborhood Sharks and, most recently, Making More. She lives in Corvallis, Oregon.

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Enter for a chance to win a hardcover edition of Sea Without a Shore, autographed by both Barb Rosenstock and Katherine Roy.

Sea Without a Shore: Book Giveaway

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Special thanks to Bianca of The Children's Book Review for the chance to bring this title to you! (THANKS!) This post is sponsored by W.W. Norton. The review and opinions expressed in this post are based on my personal view. For more information on this author, her other works, the illustrator, or the publisher, feel free to click through the links above. Be sure to check out the rest of the tour for more bookish fun!

TOUR SCHEDULE

Tuesday, September 10, 2024

The Children’s Book Review

Book Review of Sea Without a Shore

Wednesday, September 11, 2024

April Lynch

Book Review of Sea Without a Shore

Thursday, September 12, 2024

@pagesforpaige

Book Review of Sea Without a Shore

Friday, September 13, 2024

Confessions of a Book Addict