I love the art style! The illustrations are so pretty. However, I think the story could've been fleshed out more, unless it's for very young children. ( )

A short, cute story about imagination. Two children return from the beach and are very sad. When they find sand in shoes, they decide they will plant it and see what grows. Of course it is all beach and vacation related items. The illustrations are black and white except for blue and yellow. This actually accentuates the beach items which could be used as a discussion tool with children. It could also be a fun bedtime story based upon the ending. A good addition to a family library. The publisher generously provided me a copy of this book via Netgalley. ( )

Grains of Sand by Sibylle Delacroix is a simply gorgeous book perfect for the littlest of littles and the oldest of vacation lovers.

When two children arrive home after a vacation at the beach they feel “as blue as the sea”. When they realize that they have brought some of the beach home, trapped in their shoes, they decide to plant it and go on an incredible journey through the imagination to figure out what will grow.

This book is a beautiful mediation through the imagination, leading to questioning and discovering and storytelling. What do you think will grow if you plant beach sand? The incredible illustrations in black and white with yellows and blues scattered in evoke all the beach you feelings we experience when we are out on vacation and free from the constraints of the daily routine and the feelings we long for when our vacation comes to an end. It is there where we can find a “field of umbrellas, and a forest of pinwheels”. Sibylle Delacroix uses the most incredibly descriptive language, you don't even need the pictures of the book to see the story unfold. Definitely a book to have on hand upon returning from vacation or perhaps to even bring with you. ( )

Just returned home from their holiday at the seashore, a little girl and her younger brother imagine what crop the golden grains of sand left in the girl's shoe might produce, if sown in a field. Perhaps beach umbrellas, waving hello to the sun, or lemon-flavored ice cream balls, all growing in a row? Perhaps enough sand to make an entire golden beach, or, as Daddy suggests, to fill the Sandman's bags...?

Originally published in France as Graines de sable, this lovely picture-book offers a quiet but emotionally resonant look at the simple pleasures of a holiday at the shore, and the inevitable sense of melancholy that is felt, when bidding farewell to said pleasures. Still, as the grains of sand left in the girl's shoe suggest, the shore will stay with us, if only in our memories and dreams. Recommended to anyone looking for picture-books about (relatively speaking) the seashore, or about the inchoate experience of things coming to an end. ( )

Kirkus reviews

A girl and her little brother, Ulysses, return from a beach vacation and have a hard time adjusting back to life at home; the girl decides to plant the sand from her shoes and she and her brother imagine what might grow. This activity, and their dad's promise that they'll go back to the beach next year, ease the transition.

The illustrations are the star here, mainly done in pencil, with blue accents (the girl's shorts, the boy's shirt) and bright yellow for the sand and their imaginings (a field of yellow umbrellas, a crop of lemon ice cream). ( )