wave wordless book

Wave, A Wordless Picture Book

by

Wave Book Review

wave wordless picture book

Wave, by Suzy Lee, is a wordless picture book about a little girl’s day at the beach. The story is told entirely by pictures, which makes sense, as author Lee is first and foremost an illustrator. She received her BFA in painting and her MA in Book Arts.

Illustration

The book is illustrated with charcoal and colored with two shades of watercolor. It’s impressive how Suzy Lee was able to convey the look and feel of the ocean and beach with minimal color, but she does. It’s almost as if any more color would be too detailed and take away from the story.

Story

The story is about a little girl’s trip to the beach with her mom and revolves around the joyful interaction between the ocean waves and the girl. The waves in this book are almost a character of their own. The little girl and wave go back and forth, playfully teasing and taunting. The experienced seagulls on each page are an indicator of when it’s time to run away from the wave or you’ll be sorry! I do appreciate how this book is not afraid of showing kids the power of the ocean.

The feeling of Wave takes you back to a time of childhood with negligible worries or cares. Even when the wave gives the girl a surprise splash, she takes it in stride, and instead of getting upset is able to discover all the beautiful seashells that the crashing wave uncovered. It’s refreshing to see humans take surprise situations as they come with peace and acceptance.

Make Your Own Story

My favorite part about wordless books is how the story is different every read because you create it in your head. You know the saying a picture is worth a thousand words, well, in wordless books a picture is worth a thousand stories. Little things can change with each reading. The story can be shorter or longer, you can go more in-depth about the little girl’s backstory, you can tell the story from the wave’s point of view, or the little girl’s, or the seagulls! I love how this fosters creativity (and prevents boredom from reading the same book over and over!)

Age Recommendation

The publisher recommends this book for children preschool age and up. I would recommend this book for any age, infant and beyond. We bought Wave when Ava was one, and she really enjoyed looking through the pictures. We threw it in a beach bag to bring to her M’ma’s annual winter beach trip. She loved reading it after a day at the beach and had lots of fun associating her beach adventures with the little girl’s adventures in the book.

Wave will make a great addition to any young child’s library. As always, thanks for reading! For more beach themed books for the little ones, check out Beach Books to Get Your Toddler Excited for Summer. For more wordless book recommendations try The Best Wordless Books for Toddlers.

© 2024 A Little Library • Built with