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.