Book Review of Hello, Ocean!
The Children’s Book Review
Hello, Ocean!
Written and Illustrated by Corinna Luyken
Ages: 3-7 | 40 Pages
Publisher: Rocky Pond Books (2026) | ISBN-13: 978-0593625248
What to Expect: A celebration of the seashore, ocean discovery, environmental stewardship, and family connection.
A joyful beach-day picture book that celebrates the wonders of the shore while gently introducing young readers to the responsibility of caring for it.
A day at the seaside unfolds in greetings—hello to sand, to toes, to the splish and splash of foamy waves. A young girl wanders the beach with her parents, naming the small marvels she encounters along the way: razor clams, sand dollars, logs, dune grass, and the endless rhythm of the water. But not everything washing ashore is a treasure. When the family stumbles upon a tangle of debris, the day shifts—briefly, tenderly—into something larger than discovery, before returning to the simple, glowing pleasures of a busy, happy day by the ocean. The real treasure, as the story so beautifully reminds us, is the ocean itself.
Author-illustrator Corrina Luyken’s text is spare and rhythmic, built on the repeated, child-friendly refrain of “hello”—the economy of language is one of the book’s quiet strengths, each word earns its place, and the simple structure invites the youngest readers to join in aloud. When the tone shifts to acknowledge the garbage on the beach, Luyken handles it with a light hand, trusting children to feel the difference between what the ocean offers and what humans leave behind, offering an artful balance of celebration and stewardship.
Rendered in acryla gouache, ink, and pencil, with brayers, sponges, brushes, plastic netting, and monoprinting techniques, every brushstroke, splatter, and pencil mark adds direction, movement, and feeling. Luyken never shies away from using a palette of unique colors, which is on full display here—golden yellows, aqua green-blues, and grounding charcoal blacks combine to create pages that radiate with sea-light. Fans of My Heart and The Book of Mistakes will feel right at home, while new readers will discover an artist whose every page rewards a slow, second look.
Pairing the joy of beachcombing with a gentle nudge toward conservation, Hello, Ocean! begs to be read aloud. It is sure to be cherished by families who love the shore, educators looking for an accessible entry point into environmental themes, and any young reader who delights in saying hello to the world around them.
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Corinna Luyken is the author-illustrator of the New York Times Best Seller, My Heart, as well as The Arguers (May, 2025); ABC and You and Me (A Dolly Parton Imagination Library selection); The Tree in Me (an NCTE Notable Poetry Book and Indie Bestseller); and The Book of Mistakes (which The Wall Street Journal called “sublime”).
She is also the illustrator of many award winning picture books including In the Dark (A Marginalian Best Book of 2023) written by Kate Hoefler; Patchwork (A New York Times and Kirkus Best Picture Book of 2022), written by Matt de la Peña; and Adrian Simcox Does Not Have a Horse (A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard and Comstock-Gag Read Aloud Book Award) written by Marcy Campbell.
She was raised in Oregon, California, and Hawaii, and studied dance improvisation, poetry, and printmaking at Middlebury College in Vermont. Her work is rooted in improvisation and explores themes of connection, perception, and misperception. She lives in Western Washington, near the Salish Sea, where she also likes to dig in the dirt, surf, and read with a cat (or two) on her lap.
For more information, visit: https://www.corinnaluyken.com/
