Ocean Wide, Ocean Deep

Nineteenth-century Cape Cod is the backdrop for this lyrical picturebook about a young girl waiting for her father to return from an ocean journey. As the seasons pass, her baby brother learns to walk, storms come and go, and the girl wonders how her father is and whether he's thinking of her, too. Susan Lendroth's gentle, rhyming text pairs with first-time illustrator Ra?a?N￠l All?cn's stunning illustrations to produce a timeless tale about the absence of a parent, and the power of love to cross distances as wide and deep as the ocean.

"Children in the contemporary equivalent of the narrator'??s situation-a son or daughter anxious about an absent parent'??s well-being-will appreciate both the distance afforded by the period setting and the comfort of the melodic language and happy ending."-Publishers Weekly"...set in the past, this book will speak to contemporary children who suffer the absence of a parent due to work, divorce, or war."-Washington Parent

RA?oL ALL?aN grew up in Valladolid, Spain. He received a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Salamanca and then moved to Boston to study illustration and design. Ra??l's work has been exhibited in New York, Boston, Madrid, and Barcelona, and has appeared in Rolling Stone and GQ magazines among others. Ra??l now lives in Spain. This is his first American picturebook.


SUSAN LENDROTH has had a lifelong fascination with history. The seaside setting of OCEAN WIDE, OCEAN DEEP, which follows her first picturebook, WHY EXPLORE?, also pays homage to her love of the ocean. When she's not working on picturebooks, Susan writes essays and freelance travel articles for a variety of magazines and newspapers. She lives in Southern California with her daughter.