MEET ME BY THE SEA

A bored kid’s uneventful participation in the childhood tradition of running away.

When a nameless early-elementary-age child feels “invisible to the world”—chiefly to her caregivers, busy with phones and computers in a dim, gray indoor space—the kid dons boots, stocking cap, and a bulky orange coat to go to “my favorite place,” leaving a note by the door. Soft-looking watercolor panels delineate the journey through a lightly wooded area, the child enjoying the apparent familiarity of the bushes, trees, and woodland creatures with whom they cross paths as the sun sets. Sparse, uninspired text (“things appear … / … and disappear”) accompanies and ultimately distracts from the well-executed storytelling present in Levi’s illustrations. The story’s intended climax seems to be the narrator’s discovery of a red fox that curls up at the foot of the sleeping bag, but with minimal expressions on both faces and a single line of text acknowledging the event, any emotions such an event might instill are dampened. The narrator and the fox walk to the seaside, where the child is joined by not-so-inattentive caregivers, and the three humans leave without the fox, who remains mindfully enjoying the view.

Bland writing in this Swiss-German import detracts from sweet illustrations, creating an uncompelling single read.