As the boy goes about his life above-playing with his brown-skinned friend coming home to a simple lunch going to the store with a list for the grocer or visiting his grandfather’s grave overlooking the sea-several predominantly black two-page spreads, vigorously textured strokes of black and gray adding weight, are woven into the narrative, reminding readers that deep down, the miners are digging for coal. A muted palette and images heavily outlined in black reinforce the feeling. Both the text and the illustrations have a simple, understated quality that go hand in hand and lend a melancholic feel to the whole. Upstairs, their son wakes up, and it is from him that readers will get to know his town and life by the sea, the repeated phrase “it goes like this-” lending the narrative a timeless quality. The woman holds her husband’s lunch pail as he gets ready to leave home. (Apr.The coal mines of Cape Breton in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia have closed, but this book recalls a time when generations of men toiled in the mines under the sea.Īs the book starts, a white couple stands by the door. Illustrator’s agent: Emily van Beek, Folio Literary Management. It’s a sensitive way of helping readers understand that, for some, the idea of choosing a career is a luxury.

In my town, that’s the way it goes.” In Schwartz’s lyrical, wistful account, there’s no sense of injustice or complaint-only a note of resignation. “One day,” the boy concludes, “it will be my turn. A page turn reveals inky darkness: “And I know my father is already deep down under that sea, digging for coal.” The boy plays and does errands as his father toils far below. In the morning, the boy stands in his underwear and gazes out the window toward the sea. Smith’s ( The White Cat and the Monk) expressive, evocative spreads contrast the light-soaked landscape above with the night-black mine below, and the boy’s varied activities with his father’s fixed routine. Her young narrator takes readers through a typical day, describing a quiet, unchanging life. In an author’s note, Schwartz ( Pinny in Summer) explains that until the 1950s, boys who grew up in Canadian coal towns knew that their futures lay at the bottom of their local mine.

Town is by the sea by joanne schwartz