Stella, Star of the Sea (Stella and Sam)
Marie-Louise Gay's squat, snub-nosed children with their frenzied locks  are as familiar to under-fives as the wild things ofMaurice Sendak. InStella, Star of the Sea(which won a Governor General's Award for  illustration), the gifted picture-book artist introduces the irresistible duo of  Sam and his spirited older sister, Stella. "Stella and Sam were spending a day  at the sea shore," Gay begins this playful celebration of summer, adding, "It  was Sam's very first time." Stella is an adventurer, eager to dive to the ocean  floor, tame sea horses, and dig a hole to China, but her little brother, Sam, is  made of more cautious stuff. When Stella, looking out at the sea from the top of  a delightfully round sand dune, exclaims, "Isn't it beautiful, Sam?" he observes  with a characteristic deadpan, "It's very big... and noisy."Gay humorously contrasts the children's impressions of the sea in pictures and  dialogue that capture Sam's experience of its frightening enormity, as well as  Stella's joy in its secret treasures. To fend off the prospect of a swim, Sam  keeps asking Stella anxious questions like "Does a sea horse gallop?" Stella's  replies are as authoritative as they are imaginative: "'Yes!' cried Stella. 'And  you can ride a sea horse bareback.'" Gay's whimsical watercolors show Stella  swimming alongside tropical fish and holding onto the back of a child-sized pink  sea horse, while Sam hangs behind, a tiny speck in a water ring on the distant  shore. Ultimately, of course, Stella's irrepressible enthusiasm wins over Sam's  sober hesitancy, and in the final image of this charming picture book the two of  them float happily in a luminous blue green sea. (Baby to age 4)--Lisa Alward--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.