The Pink House at the Seashore - Hardcover

Deborah Blumenthal is a health-and-fitness writer living in Houston, Texas. This is her third book for Clarion.

K-Gr. 3. After a storm destroys her family's summer cabin at the beach, a girl tells of driving back there with her parents and her brother. Simple, evocative words and expressive gouache pictures show the destruction they find: "a world / shaken, / turned upside down, / inside out / by shrieking winds" that "had ripped along the coast / like a mad beast, / destroying everything in its path." The sorrow is heartfelt. The girl remembers happy times when the family felt safe. She talks about her present grief and loss, and, finally, about the hope of rebuilding, even as she hears her mother cry. Of course, the horrifying tsunami images and the reports of local storms and destruction will add immediacy to this story, which can open discussion about both the nightmares of sudden natural disasters and the loss of this one family--fortunate that its loss was not a loved one. Hazel Rochman
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