Sea Change

Move over Kinston, NC because perhaps my happy place next summer is going to be Point Aconi, Nova Scotia. We never drive north but Frank Viva's Sea Change may just be the inspiration I need to switch our direction. 

When Eliot boards the plane from his home town of bustling Lakefield he has no idea how much he will change in two months.  Living with his great uncle Earl is not easy at first.  But after getting used to the early morning wake ups to fish on his uncle's boat, YNOT (you'll have to read the book to find the inner meaning of that name), facing fear of the water and Miss Louisa in spite of his embarrassing mermaid towel, making friends, and fighting for the town he thought he was destined to hate, leaving becomes almost as hard as it was to set foot in the town.

The artwork is beautiful and the use of words as art is simply poetic. Viva uses the page as a pallette and the words as his brush strokes.  There's no other way to describe it.  Often, the prose become concrete poems and it works.  In fact, it works so much, I wanted way more of it than was there.

This  sums up some of the "nice" things Eliot experienced in Point Aconi:

"... the stars in the sky, the library in the attic, the taste of lobster dipped in butter..." (p.72).

And since I'm not a huge lobster fan and definitely not one of tongue, I will go grab a peanut butter and jam sandwich, a pile of gingersnap cookies and think of Eliot, Mary Beth, Timmy, Jack, Eddie, Happy, Uncle Earl, Old Miss Gifford all in hues of pink, dark grey and muted yellow.  That will make me smile, giggle and even get a little choked up.  This is another one that will stick with me for awhile.

And if that's not convincing enough, check out this beautiful trailer:

And here is a short video that includes clips from Frank's cottage: