The Sea in the Way

With soft colors and an attentive, furred protagonist, this tale of yearning carries the quietest of messages. Badger looks out her window, gazing wistfully at the vast, gray-green sea, whose texture and motion Gilmore (Terrific!) represents in muted watercolors and wispy ink strokes. Badger’s friend Bear lives on the sea’s other side, so far away that when Badger goes to bed, Bear is just getting up. In her loneliness, Badger approaches the in-the-way sea, and the body of water makes an offer: “Bring me something nice, and I’ll let you cross.” A new companion—a large, noisy bird with “feathers the color of a storm”—approaches Badger and helps with the search. But the sea makes another demand, and then another, a final ask that requires Badger to make a terrible choice. In Gilmore’s austere, almost mythic images, the sea grasps at its desire with dozens of small waves that look eerily like hands. Though she’s come so close to having what she wants, Badger reaches for a reframe (and a telephone) in this powerful story about learning to connect with faraway loved ones and care for one’s immediate community, too. Ages 4–8. Agent: Jennifer Rofé, Andrea Brown Literary. (Sept.)