The Endless Sea

Born into a family being “punished for being on the losing side” of a long war, the child narrator of this contemplative picture book by Thai explains how “every day felt like it could be our last.” The protagonist’s mother sells all the family’s possessions for gold, then carefully strikes a deal. In the night, the family of four surreptitiously make their way to a wooden boat, where they’re squeezed in tightly with others. Food and water run out as the boat travels down a river to the sea. Out on the ocean (“So big, so deep”), a storm threatens to sink the craft, until a vast ship appears and waits hours to bring the passengers aboard. Unadorned prose renders life-or-death moments throughout, not shying away from recollected experiences of fear. Dao’s stark digital illustrations, meanwhile, mimic stamp and watercolor textures as the pink-clad narrator worries—and later dreams—about sinking into the sea (“It would be as if we were never here, or never even existed”). A note discusses the author’s flight from Vietnam at age three. Ages 4–8. (Mar.)