I enjoyed the language and the pictures very much, but will have to read it aloud to children before making my final opinion. ( )

This book was a questioning book about what might be "over the ocean." In my opinion, this book would be great for teaching social studies because every time the book suggests, maybe there are buildings over the ocean or maybe there is a land of ice over the ocean, we as teachers could introduce concepts like countries or cities. It was very repetitive but for an easy reader book I think it is perfect. I especially liked the illustrations. The bottom 1/4 of the page was the same on every page of a blue ocean and a child standing with red overalls. The image of what was "over the ocean" changed depending on what the child imagined, but "reality" stayed the same. ( )

The story of, “Over the Ocean,” by Taro Gomi is about a young girl that is in Japan that is constantly looking over the ocean and questioning what is beyond the ocean that she is looking at. She uses her imagination to see what the other side holds because she wishes that she were able to go across the ocean and find out what really lies behind the other side. In the end, the book is left open ended because the author might have wanted the audience to decide the ending