Written by Deborah Hodge
Illustrated by Karen Reczuch
Published September 1, 2015
Why we chose this book:
I grew up on the west coast. A book introducing the unique beauty of this coast holds particular appeal. With the overabundance of alphabet books on the market, one must be discerning. The theme, the publisher (we've seen many good things from Groundwood), and the cover art led us to select this one. Groundwood Books provided a review copy in exchange for an honest review.
Review
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| T's favorite page |
One of the most beautiful and worthwhile alphabet books out there.
After an introduction inviting the reader to explore the magical place where "an ancient rainforest meets the ocean," cougars, invertebrates, orcas, and urchins are introduced. Each letter is a lens through which animals and plants can be examined. An informative narrative entrances alongside full-page watercolors; so fully did we immerse ourselves in West Coast Wild that it was almost jarring to look out the window and see our Massachusetts backyard upon closing the book.
On top of the simple pleasure in reading a beautiful and informative book, the reading of this became quite personal. When T and I first started reading this a few weeks ago, my younger brother still lived on the west coast. T and I have recorded the audio of us reading books together and reviewing them in order to share the books and reviews with him. We recorded a reading of West Coast Wild that we did together – T identified the letters he knew, and quickly started following the pattern of "[A] is for..." We talked a little bit about the different animals we saw; T was excited to hear about the time a mountain lion (C is for cougar) was roaming loose in the park behind my high school, and he so wants to see a sea star. He connected with this book because I connected with it, and he now has a list of what he wants to explore next time we visit Grammy, even though some are much farther north than where she lives. We talked also a bit about what our favorite animals are (the wolves are definitely not T's) and why Uncle B would enjoy this book in particular (he and my mom were spontaneous beachgoers). I haven't written this review until now, however, because on May 10, 2019, my brother passed away. T and I didn't send him our recording, or even make an official book review, before that date.
My husband reminded me of a quote by David Eagleman that a friend shared at her husband's funeral: "There are three deaths: the first is when the body ceases to function. The second is when the body is consigned to the grave. The third is that moment, sometime in the future, when your name is spoken for the last time. " Staving off that third death, T and I will recall Uncle B every time we read West Coast Wild.
Thank you.
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