One-Button and the Sea

This is a big story. So says Grandpa to little One-Button who has just asked to be told (again) the story of ‘when we went to sea’. It begins with the uprooting we’re told, and there’s a dictionary definition of ‘uprooting’ on the first page, green tendrils providing a frame. The calm of this and the kitchen in which Granda and One-Button are sitting is transformed dramatically on the next spread, as we see them and their neighbours run to the boats, huge green branches now breaking through pavements and houses. The sky is dark grey and threatening, expressions on the faces of those fleeing a mix of shock and fear. One-Button’s questions drive the narrative, ‘and then what?’, ‘what did we do?’, ‘were we safe, Grandpa?’, and text and illustrations describe their journey across the sea, part of a fleet of little boats. Sometimes these sailors are happy, sometimes things are scary, the blue sea turning green, but throughout their community looks out for one another, ‘carried by the same sea’. Eventually the wind changes direction and they return to their home. As a new story begins, the final image is of One-Button and a friend playing in a boat suspended from a tree.

The story can be read in a multitude of ways and provides so many openings for conversation and discussion. Each question One-Button asks is an opportunity for readers to consider the answer and provide their own. The sea journey too can be so many things: a journey undertaken by refugees, by those avoiding climate change, or is it a metaphor for grief and recovery or for life itself?  In addition to posing questions, text and illustrations provide reassurance, moments of comfort and comedy, and a sense of the unending nature of things. A big story indeed, and one that is highly recommended.