I, SEA

A nautical (and ophthalmological) adventure, with only variations on a few homonyms for text.

In flat assemblages composed of brightly colored patterned paper elements, a seagoing tiger gazes through binoculars to spot an island (“Eye. See”), takes a sudden wave in the face (“Eye! Sea!”) that leads to a visit to a doctor’s office to read a wall chart (“I…C…”), and gets a rakish eye patch (“Eye. See?”), then heads back to the briny deep. A final page with a concluding “I see” for, perhaps, young audiences to intone depicts a cat checking out a brown-skinned child immersed in a sudsy, toy-filled bathtub. This “Land of Counterpane”–style flight lends itself to reading aloud in a broad, expressive way and could serve as a first introduction to a feature of language with equal potential for confusion and hilarious wordplay. But since Sutherland doesn’t distinguish homonyms from homographs and homophones, it’s best employed as a prelude to more precise explorations of the topic like Gene Barretta’s The Bat Can Bat (2018) or Nancy Coffelt’s Aunt Ant Leaves Through the Leaves (2012). (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Clever but too limited to float unassisted.