This book was one of my daughter's favorites when she was a preschooler (she's now nine). We'd read and talk about Hello Ocean no matter the season. Some of its pull may have been the sea's unique beauty, but I think there was another powerful draw as well: the invitation to be fully alive to the natural world. On her own, my daughter would often play a kind of "five-senses game." She'd look closely at a stick, a stone, or a pond, for example, listen to its sounds or the sounds she could make with it, smell, touch, and yes, sometimes, taste it.

Hello Ocean invites us, adults and kids alike, to slow down, to be more aware of our senses and the world around us. In his recent Green Hour Blog, Robert Kesten, executive director of the Center for Screen Time Awareness, cautioned that modern technology (computers, TV, video games) takes us "out of the world in which we live." So, too, does our hurried pace of life. Commutes can be long, chores many, hours few, and schedules complex. Ai-yi-yi!

Like many modern parents, I can certainly get swept into a multi-tasking frenzy. But -- hey! -- there's an ocean out there, beckoning, and even that tree in the backyard is calling. Would you and your child like to take five (five minutes and five senses) and experience either or both?

Hello Ocean is by Pam Munoz Ryan, and was published by Charlesbridge Publishing in 2001. For ages 1 to 7 , it is available in a bilingual English/Spanish edition.