Seaside Dream

Review
By Polliwog on Safari

On Thursday night, my kids and I went to ‘meet a local.’ Janet Costa Bates, who grew up in the next town, read her debut picture book Seaside Dream at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. Seaside Dream explores universal themes: love between a grandmother and granddaughter, choosing just the right birthday gift, and longing for relatives far away. I believe there are too few children’s books featuring people outside of the dominant (white) culture. I know the Cape Verdeans in the room saw themselves in the pages of a book, perhaps for the first time.