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pussreboots's review
4.0
The Uncorker of Ocean Bottles by Michelle Cuevas and illustrated by Erin E. Stead is a picture book about a man who lives by the sea and has taken upon himself to deliver messages in bottles. Except one day a bottle contains an invitation to a party. The problem is, he doesn't know who to deliver it to.
http://pussreboots.com/blog/2020/comments_01/uncorker_of_ocean_bottles.html
http://pussreboots.com/blog/2020/comments_01/uncorker_of_ocean_bottles.html
jmshirtz's review
5.0
I adore [a: Erin E. Stead|4581894|Erin E. Stead|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1381164347p2/4581894.jpg]'s illustrations in all of her works; this one being no exception. The story was interesting, too. It's very different than many picture books and that made me like it even more.
cweichel's review
5.0
This book is drop dead gorgeous with a deeply philosophical message about purpose and meaning in life.
bethmitcham's review against another edition
3.0
Delicate illustrations set a mood, but I was unsympathetic with the formless protagonist.
tashrow's review against another edition
5.0
The Uncorker of Ocean Bottles lives in a small house on a hill near the sea where he watches for the glint of glass in the waves. It is his job to deliver any messages found in bottles to their rightful owner. Sometimes that means walking only a short distance and other times he must go on a long journey to deliver them. He wishes that one day he would find a message in a bottle that is meant for him, but he never does. One day though, he does find a message with no recipient mentioned. It is an invitation to a party on the beach. He heads into town and asks person after person if this is their message, but it doesn’t belong to any of them. He decides he must go to the party to apologize for not delivering the message to the right person. But what he finds there shows him that some messages are meant for him after all.
Cuevas writes with real poetry in this picture book. Her prose captures the essence of moments with gorgeous descriptions like, “Sometimes the messages were very old, crunchy like leaves in the fall.” The book celebrates the connection that letters bring each of us and takes readers back to a time when messages were written by hand, even if rarely placed in bottles. It is also a book that speaks to the importance of community and feeling like you belong, but also the vitality that can be found in taking the first step towards making that connection.
Stead’s illustrations are dreamy with their pastel colors and fine lined details. Some of them are almost like looking through a keyhole and watching while others encompass the page. There are pages filled with the water of the sea that show both the difficulty of the job and the loneliness of it too. Moments looking alone out of a window capture the isolation the Uncorker is feeling. The colors too add to the emotions of the images both during the isolation and later at the party.
A poetic and beautiful picture book that looks at letters, community and connections in a memorable way. Appropriate for ages 4-6.
Cuevas writes with real poetry in this picture book. Her prose captures the essence of moments with gorgeous descriptions like, “Sometimes the messages were very old, crunchy like leaves in the fall.” The book celebrates the connection that letters bring each of us and takes readers back to a time when messages were written by hand, even if rarely placed in bottles. It is also a book that speaks to the importance of community and feeling like you belong, but also the vitality that can be found in taking the first step towards making that connection.
Stead’s illustrations are dreamy with their pastel colors and fine lined details. Some of them are almost like looking through a keyhole and watching while others encompass the page. There are pages filled with the water of the sea that show both the difficulty of the job and the loneliness of it too. Moments looking alone out of a window capture the isolation the Uncorker is feeling. The colors too add to the emotions of the images both during the isolation and later at the party.
A poetic and beautiful picture book that looks at letters, community and connections in a memorable way. Appropriate for ages 4-6.
debnanceatreaderbuzz's review against another edition
5.0
Cybils nominee for best fiction picture book. More later.
themaddiest's review against another edition
4.0
I thought this quiet little story was lovely, and the drawings are evocative of the story. It's a great story for a bedtime book, filled with lush language that helps build vocabulary, but also one with an open ending, allowing readers to imagine future installments.
I thought it was great, and it will work for a mix of readers, old and young.
I thought it was great, and it will work for a mix of readers, old and young.
katebrarian's review against another edition
4.0
Beautiful beautiful illustrations. I wanted to fall into this book and live in the pages. Stead also illustrated A Sick Day for Amos McGee which is also a book with lovely illustrations! I love the particular turns of phrase in the writing as well - "...the waves tipped their white postman hats to the Uncorker...", "...he would journey until his compass because rusty and he felt loneliness as sharp as fish scales," "...for a letter can hold the treasure of a clam-hugged pearl." Quite beautiful in a children's book.
I am really curious about the origins of the Uncorker. This book doesn't seem magically-real enough for him to actually be a manifestation of the desire for connection or whatever (though that's perfectly whimsical (also I just read another reviewer who wanted to call this whimsical-realism which I'm obviously down with))...but the more I think of it, the more I like that interpretation better than my other one which is that the Uncorker is the product of an unconventional and possibly abusive household. His parent/guardian was mentally ill or otherwise detached from reality and raised him lonely in this house on a hill with the sole purpose of Uncorking, didn't allow him to make friends or see anyone outside of the message in a bottle visits and told him that none of them would want to be his friend anyway because he was smelly, left him emotionally stunted and unable to really connect with people and then died, leaving him to just continue on without companionship outside of a cat and a cow and without a name. Hopefully the end of this book represents the small seaside town attempting to bring the Uncorker into their community now that his controlling guardian has died.
I am really curious about the origins of the Uncorker. This book doesn't seem magically-real enough for him to actually be a manifestation of the desire for connection or whatever (though that's perfectly whimsical (also I just read another reviewer who wanted to call this whimsical-realism which I'm obviously down with))...but the more I think of it, the more I like that interpretation better than my other one which is that the Uncorker is the product of an unconventional and possibly abusive household. His parent/guardian was mentally ill or otherwise detached from reality and raised him lonely in this house on a hill with the sole purpose of Uncorking, didn't allow him to make friends or see anyone outside of the message in a bottle visits and told him that none of them would want to be his friend anyway because he was smelly, left him emotionally stunted and unable to really connect with people and then died, leaving him to just continue on without companionship outside of a cat and a cow and without a name. Hopefully the end of this book represents the small seaside town attempting to bring the Uncorker into their community now that his controlling guardian has died.
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