When the Ocean Came to Town

Gretchen, the main character of the story, loves to wander on the beach. And when she isn’t doing that, she is gazing out onto the waves from the windows of her house. Her pleasure in her surroundings is tempered by continued warnings from her parents about respecting the ocean.

The actual events of the 2003 storm Hurricane Juan which hit the coast of Nova Scotia and brought high waters and destruction to the city of Halifax are the basis for this cautionary tale. There is some foreshadowing of the danger, and then the village’s shores are overtaken by the waves. The community works together to make homes safe and to provide purified water, but tensions mount.

The parents were fighting because no one could

agree on what to do next, or how to do it. The power

went out and no one could fix it. The children were

lonely because the adults were too busy to play.

And every single day was exactly the same.

The sea had come to Gretchen, but it made no difference,

because she wasn’t even allowed to go outside.

The storm finally ends, calm is restored and Gretchen spearheads a rebuilding plan.

But this time they did things differently. This time,

they made better choices. And this time, the more everyone

worked together, the less frightened they felt.

The last pages show Gretchen looking out over the village restored, with rooftop gardens and wind-driven power sources. She thinks again of her parents’ maxim about the ocean: “It’s beautiful and generous, but you can’t underestimate its strength”.

Award-winning artist FitzGerald has provided wonderfully-detailed watercolour-and-line illustrations for the book. They echo her fine work on other publications such as Hand Drawn Vancouver and Sketch by Sketch Along Nova Scotia’s South Shore. Her slightly skewed perspective shows wonky buildings and geographical features while people and objects are drawn in two dimensions like paper dolls. Lots of telling detail fleshes out events, and clear, bright colours are used throughout. One of the most effective spreads is the scene of the height of the storm where scribbly dark blue waves are dashing up over the stilts of houses and flowerpots are taking flight.

The story deals with an important subject inspired by a real event in Canadian history. The feelings of danger and loss, as well as the uplifting sense that working together can accomplish good things, are heartfelt. However, the flow of the text is somewhat choppy and message-heavy. Certainly it is desirable to give young people a feeling of empowerment in the face of adverse circumstances and to show faith in their ability to contribute. I was less convinced by the idea that a pre-adolescent girl could drive the rehabilitation of a whole community after a major storm.

When the Ocean Came to Town is an additional resource for primary discussions on extreme weather events and climate change.