The Sea Chest
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Jacket Art  ©2002 by Mary GrandPré

The Sea Chest
by Toni Buzzeo; illustrated by Mary GrandPré
Dial Books for Young Readers, September 16, 2002
ISBN: 0803727038
A Junior Library Guild Selection

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2004-2005 Children's Crown Gallery Award Winner!

2005-2006 Young Hoosier Book Award Nominee

2002 Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award!

Featured on The CBS Early Show
2002 Gift Books for Children by Valerie Lewis

From the Jacket: As they watch for the arrival of a long-awaited stranger, Maita tells her great-grandniece the story of her remarkable childhood.  Living sheltered on a lighthouse island with only her parents for company, Maita would bake pumpkin pies, tend to the hens, spin stories, and long for a time when she might not be the only child the ragged island knew.  And then one icy night, howling winds blew wave after wave against the shore, and from that fearsome storm came a sea chest--a gift that would change Maita's life forever.

From a beguiling legend, Toni Buzzeo has fashioned this exquisitely lyrical, intimate tale, illustrated in stirring, vibrant paintings by Mary GrandPré.  Together they have created a book of classic beauty and resonance.

From the Book

I was a solitary child,
alone on Halleys Head Light
for all my first ten years,
with just my mama
to teach me reading
and just my papa
to spin stories of the boundless world
beyond the rocks of Sanctuary Island.
I longed for a time I might not be
the only child
the craggy island knew.

Spring mornings found me
scrambling beneath the port,
robbing the brooding hens
of their tawny eggs.
I circled double-yolk days in yellow
on the feed calendar above the davenport
with their promise of news, fellowship,
and sugar to sweeten summer tea.
When pumpkins burned orange
in the only garden plot
the rocky island held,
first days of home-school
were boxed in red.

But when frost grew thick in winter,
I huddled all day by the fire.
Cloaked in Mama's hand-stitched quilts,
I left the calendar for warmer days
and braided solitary stories...

Reviews and Awards

"Based on a legend about the Hendricks Head Lighthouse, this beautiful book tells the story of a lighthouse family that, after weathering a terrible storm, find a chest washed up on the shore. Inside is a beautiful baby girl with the note, "We commit this child into the hands of God. May He save her. Captain and Mrs. Donald Warren." Maita, the girl who lives at the lighthouse, falls in love with her new little sister and calls her Seaborne and they enjoy a wonderful upbringing together on their island home. The prose is just breathtaking in its description of their lives--"I taught her how to gently probe for eggs in the dimness under the porch. We took turns circling double yolk days..." The story is told in retrospect by an aged Maita to her great niece as she waits for her parents to bring her brand new sister home from somewhere across the Atlantic. The oil paintings by Mary GrandPre (best known for her wonderful Harry Potter illustrations; and why in the world when they put Harry P. on all kinds of merchandise they didn't stick with her pictures, I'll never know), draw you into the book from page one. Her close-up portrait of little Seaborne when they first find her will bring a tear to your eye. A heartwarming family and adoption tale." ~ Sharon Levin, Children's Literature Comprehensive Database (reprinted in full with permission of the publisher)

"Based on legend, this story tells of a baby washed ashore in a sea chest after a storm off the Maine coast. As the daughter of a lighthouse keeper, Maita leads a quiet, secluded and nearly solitary life gardening with her mother, accompanying her father on his rounds, and reading curled up in a quilt by the fire. But a huge storm nearly blows out the windows and in the quiet that follows the next day, she and her father find the baby and raise it. The story is framed by Great-Aunt Maita telling of the girl's great-grandmother Seaborne's arrival while the pair wait for "the tiny stranger my mama and papa have gone to fetch from so far across the wide Atlantic--to be my sister." It is an adoption story, but so cleverly hidden that the reader might miss it the first time around. GrandPre's luminous and lush oil paintings depict the lighthouse and its inhabitants in swirls of color while the text appears as if on old parchment edged with wear. Buzzeo's poetic text suits the dreamlike memory of someone who remembers the sensory aspects of her childhood as strongly as she remembers the events. An author's note suggests that the story arose from a 1900 novel and was later picked up as fact, but no one knows for sure. It is a neat story, nonetheless, well told and prettily illustrated." ~ Susan Hepler, Ph.D., Children's Literature Comprehensive Database (reprinted in full with permission of the publisher)

"The combination of exquisite language and enchanting illustrations makes this a unique and outstanding book." STARRED REVIEW, School Library Journal, August 2002

"A contemporary family adoption story and a 19th-century legend are braided together into a tale of extraordinary tenderness and remembered longing." Kirkus, July 1, 2002

"Poignant, poetic and movingly illustrated, this story resonates with sisterly love." Publisher's Weekly, August 5, 2002

“In language that rises and falls like ocean waves, Buzzeo spins a local Maine legend into a deeply felt family story." Booklist, November 1, 2002

"This is a beautiful book to share with a child.  The language is lyrical and demands repeated readings."  -Sue Corbett, Miami Herald, August 13, 2002

"...ranks among the most beautiful picture books published this year...a genuine treasure."
-Julia Durango, Ottawa Daily Times, November 26, 2002

"You know that a book is perfect when you can cry in the bookstore and also be thinking of ways to use it with kids from K-7." -Sharon Freeman, Teacher-Librarian, Brentwood Park School, Burnaby, BC, Canada

"This book would make an excellent gift for an older child who is expecting a little brother or sister...a unique adoption story." -Ann Morrison, FRUA-Austin News, October 2002

"...Reaches right into the heart with some golden treasures in adoption themes." -John Aeby, Hi Families, November/December 2002

"Like the best adoption tales, The Sea Chest will appeal to a broad readership of adults as well as children." Adoptive Families, March/April 2003  AdoptiveFamilies.com

"Great connections to lighthouses and to adoption or family studies." -Sharron McElmeel, McBookwords, Favorite Books

“The language of this story is rich with visual imagery to describe the island setting. . .  This heart-warming tale has themes of family love that will be especially appealing to children who have been adopted.” Oneota Reading Journal

"This is destined to become a favorite story.  It has the elements that make kids come back: happy endings, mystery & discovery, and love.  The illustrations--done in oil--truly enhance the beauty of the book." The Reading Tub

Junior Library Guild Selection

A Raising Readers Selection

Kansas-NEA Reading Circle Catalog
"...this gentle piece portrays the dynamics of the sea and its caretakers."

Best Children's Books of the Year, 2002. The Children's Book Committee at Bank Street College

Best Books for the Classroom, 2002.  Joan Kindig, Ed.D. Virginia Ceter for Children's Books

2002 Maine Lupine Honor Award

2002 Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award

Featured on The CBS Early Show 2002 Gift Books for Children by Valerie Lewis

Selected for exhibition at The Original Art 2002, a Society of Illustrators juried exhibition of over 150 original works selected from children’s books. October 30 – November 27, 2002

2004-2005 Children's Crown Gallery Award Winner

2005-2006 Young Hoosier Book Award Nominee

The Story Behind the Story

I "found" the sea chest story in March 1998 when I was previewing a video about Maine lighthouses, entitled Light Spirit, for my fourth graders at Longfellow School where I was the Library Media Specialist. The movie told the story of a baby in a sea chest, washed ashore at Hendricks Head Light. I fell in love with the idea and spent a year thinking about how I could write that story. My friend, children's author Jane Kurtz, said that if it were her idea, she'd be imagining a relationship between sisters. 

That started me thinking about my own childhood as a lonely only child for so many years and the two events that changed all that.  When I was nine, my parents determined that they would never give birth to another child.  They decided to take in a foster child--nine-month-old Marianne--while the courts were waiting for her adoption by another couple to be finalized.  We knew she wouldn't be ours forever, but we loved her as if she would.  I adored having a sister and being a sister!
 

Before long, as often happens, my mother discovered that she was expecting a baby.  After nine months, Marianne's adoption had cleared the courts, and she was ready to go off to the new family eagerly awaiting her.  It was terribly hard to let her go, and I missed her every day, even when, a month after my tenth birthday, I found myself being a sister again--this time to my biological sister, Karen.
 

Suddenly, as I remembered those childhood years, I had all of the emotions I needed to write the book. One summer morning in July 1999 the story came rushing out onto paper. It wasn't until much later that I began my research and learned the origins of the baby-in-the-sea-chest legend, however, and understood that it wasn't an historic event at all.  Nevertheless, I think it makes a wonderful story!

Read more about the Story Behind the Story of The Sea Chest and writing historical fiction at The Children's Book Review.

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