This is a really lovely book about respecting the sea. The illustrations are beautiful, and the meanings are quite deep. This is good for children and adults alike.

Great story line of respecting the sea. Themes and messages are age appropriate. Very colorful and vibrant illustrations, although at times the drawings of the children are a little wacky and unrealistic.

"My Dear Sea" is an extraordinary book that has multiple messages and uses for parents of Littles. Maybe you are a family of water lovers and you want to share a story about a sun-soaked family fun day at the beach ... this is it! Maybe you are looking for a tool to help teach your kiddo about water safety, especially at beaches where the water and tides are unpredictable ... this will help! Maybe you are looking to introduce the topic of pollution and keeping our oceans clean ... yep, this has that as well!

The color palette and artistic style had me wanting summer to come so we can take our Little to the beach! It is simple with more muted tones being offset by the brilliant blues of the sea.

For water lovers everywhere ... this one is a must-read for your picture book TBR pile!

Netgalley ARC - This had cute elements and some pages that were lovely! Some of the illustrations and warnings kind of led to a scary tone in some places. I understand the message is to respect the sea but I found the illustrations like the gulls or fishing net ones to be visually overwhelming and hard to enjoy.

I am so split on this one. I have diametrically opposed feelings about the illustrations and the text. On the one hand, the art in this is incredibly expressive and beautiful; it effortlessly conveys the power of the ocean, the feeling of interacting with it as a child, and the generative "messiness" of all the creatures, trash, etc, within it.

But the text really rubbed me the wrong way. It rhymes-- and nearly every rhyme practically shouts out that words have been jammed together awkwardly to make the rhyme work. It especially reads that way as it is a translated work (originally in Portuguese,) so one must contend with the both the effect of translation AND the awkward rhyming, and to me it felt that both of those factors really distanced me from the text.

Considering the art is so natural, so expressive, so unhindered, in my opinion the text practically doesn't match. It is not a terrible book by any means, and it's possibly still worth a read for the art alone if one is otherwise interested in picture books which explore the richness of the ocean as environment.