A (Bigger and More Colorful) Tide Pool Book

There's something about tide pools that has caught the fancy of the 4 yo, thanks to a recent coast exploration, and the tide pool books we read. So much so that for Father's Day, Og made a book for Papa, rather than a card or a note.

The fascination with tidepool/tide-pool/tide pool/tidal pool continues. Last weekend, both the kids were interested in doing more tide pool related work. Books, in particular, with related art/illustrations for the book. Ana is still working on hers. Og's is done and ready to be shared. So here it is.


I love the dramatic effects of glue and chalk pastel work that the kids like to do every now and then. That's how the cover for this particular book came about. 


Oggie chose the five tidepool creatures to be represented on the cover - viz., gumboot chiton, sea anemone, mussles, sea star and limpet; and insisted on the slightly dramatic illustration of the Starfish eating the Limpet. 

The layout was Og's idea, drawing was mine. Just freehand using the regular bottle of Elmer's school glue on black construction paper, no pencil drawing. We let it dry out under the blazing sun - was ready in a couple of hours. 


Then I set Oggie loose with an array of chalk pastels. The coloring was entirely Oggie's activity, I just popped in to click pictures on and off.

As usual, he dictated the words extempore, just whatever came to his mind. My suggestions and edits were summarily rejected. And, for some reason, he wanted the title page to state what Oggie and Mama like :)


Little illustration touches are Oggie's as well. For example, the first page with six limpets  "walking" to a starfish - he drew the starfish ray at the edge of the page. Not a full blown regular starfish on the page, but, a hint of it, just one of its rays, which, as he explained, is all he can draw: "I don't know how to draw a good starfish, Mama." Also, the "sea weed field" was his idea, and he tried his best to draw sea weed on that page.

The writing and most of the illustrating was done by me, as expected. Of course, having as much patience as a lit firecracker trying not to go off, Oggie wanted the illustrations pronto, which meant I can get away with my meager skills, no worries.

All in all, a fantastic endeavor, very satisfying - not just the end product, but the whole process that engaged us a good part of a Saturday.

Of course, with his permission, I added a page with "About the author" information.

Being quirky as he is sometimes, Og wanted the counting book to start from 6 and go only up to 14. He was particular about that. While it irked my sense of order, I told myself that we can always add more pages later.


Without further ado, here are the individual pages of the book, made with the standard 9x12 construction paper.