What do you think?
Rate this book
Wave
In this evocative wordless book, internationally acclaimed artist Suzy Lee tells the story of a little girl's day at the beach.
New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book 2008
New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book 2008
44 pages, Hardcover
First published April 16, 2008
12 people are currently reading
1900 people want to read
About the author
Suzy Lee
37 books135 followersSuzy Lee is an artist and illustrator, born in Seoul, Korea. She received her BFA in painting from Seoul National University and her MA in Book Arts from Camberwell College of Arts, London. Her books and paintings have won numerous international awards and have been featured in exhibitions worldwide.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 560 reviews
July 28, 2024
4,5*
A utilização da cor nesta “Onda” é um deleite. Sem uma única palavra mas aproveitando todo o livro, desde as guardas até à contracapa, Suzy Lee retrata a ida à praia de uma menina e a sua interação com as ondas. Um livro que lava a alma!
A utilização da cor nesta “Onda” é um deleite. Sem uma única palavra mas aproveitando todo o livro, desde as guardas até à contracapa, Suzy Lee retrata a ida à praia de uma menina e a sua interação com as ondas. Um livro que lava a alma!
January 31, 2019
This wonderful picture book with no text shows us a little girl going to the beach for the day with her mother. The little girl drawn on one side in black and white the sea on the other side in blue and gradually they meet. The book captures the feel of how fun it is to be by the sea as a child.
Read
February 17, 2021[Book #25 for my grad school Children's Lit class]
January 14, 2016
Well, I read recently Lee's Mirror and had read other work by her, so I saw that by far the most read and liked book of hers on Goodreads is Wave. It doesn't have the emotional complexity of Mirror and it's just "up," more than anything else, but it's not sappy or simplistic, either. The art is great, with lots of space for reflection and contemplation, pencils and watercolors. It's a wordless or silent story about a girl who creates a playful relationship with a wave, a friendship. I liked it a lot. Check out her work and in just a few minutes it could change the way you relate to your environment, to nature, to yourself.
January 20, 2019
The adorable (and of course wordless) antics of a little girl encountering waves on the beach are evocative, sweetly humouros, although I do kind of wish that the mother had been rather more visible in the background and that the little girl had worn a life jacket or personal floatation device. And while this small lack does not really take all that much from my aesthetic enjoyment of Suzy Lee's Wave, the fact remains that the sea can be dangerous and unpredictable, and proper safety precautions and supervision are indeed both important and necessary (and yes indeed, the more I think about this, the more it does personally somewhat bother me that the little girl is not wearing a life preserver of some kind and that the mother is not more visibly present). Furthermore and delightfully, as a college and university level German language instructor, I am always looking for intersting new teaching materials, and I believe that Wave could be an excellent (and fun) book to use for independent story telling, or even simple grammar exercises in beginning level language classes. I could well imagine using prepared photocopies of some of the scenes depicted for basic language activities (such as counting the number of sand dunes, the number of seagulls), and especially for verb drills (and since especially in German, verb conjugations should/must be practiced, I am always on the lookout for potential activities that might make this task less potentially monotonous, and pictures always help to lighten the mood and make reciting conjugations less of a pain and chore).
July 17, 2009
Charming wordless picture book that tells the story of a young girl's encounter with the waves—from her initial timidity at the new experience, to brash taunting that the wave won't get her, to humble-pie-ing when it *does*--discovering treasures that it washes ashore. In the end, she has found a new friend in the sea and "waves" a fond farewell.
January 21, 2016
Wordless meditation on childhood and its relationship to nature - poetic and wonderful (if all too brief).
March 22, 2018
چطور ممکنه اینقد ناز باشه 😭😭😭
July 21, 2017
Wave is a simple, playful, and charming wordless picturebook in which the gutter plays a crucial part in the story:
December 17, 2010
Oh, I just loved this book. It’s brilliant in every way. I was completely charmed.
It’s the wordless story of a young girl who goes to the beach with her mother/a female adult, and it’s about her, some birds, some beach finds, and some waves/the ocean.
Any young child or any person who took at least one beach trip as a child will perfectly understand the events.
Recently, some Goodreads’ members and I were talking about the book Karen and I remember one line from that book, paraphrased here, that: many things in life make way for a three year old boy, but the ocean isn’t one of them. For some reason I thought of that as I read this.
I took many trips to the beach with my father on Saturday mornings, particularly the year I was four, and I’ve spent a lot of time since playing with waves on beaches.
The illustrations are outstanding, done in blue & white & black & grays/tans. The layout and shape of the book is even perfect; it’s done in widescreen-like format. The youngest child will be able to “read’ the story. The expressions on the girl’s face and her general expressiveness, and that of the flock of birds, is also wonderful. The creator of this book has her BFA in painting and her MA in book arts (which I didn’t even know existed), and it shows!
I read this on a rainy, gloomy winter day, cold for San Francisco, although not typically cold winter weather, and my mood is not the best, but this book totally cheered me up. What a fun read!
I had this home from the library and was going to read it anyway, but almost immediately before I read it, I noticed it has been selected as one of the January books for the Picture Books Club at the Children's Books group. The theme for January is wordless picture books. I’ve loved so many of those and this one gets added to that list.
It’s the wordless story of a young girl who goes to the beach with her mother/a female adult, and it’s about her, some birds, some beach finds, and some waves/the ocean.
Any young child or any person who took at least one beach trip as a child will perfectly understand the events.
Recently, some Goodreads’ members and I were talking about the book Karen and I remember one line from that book, paraphrased here, that: many things in life make way for a three year old boy, but the ocean isn’t one of them. For some reason I thought of that as I read this.
I took many trips to the beach with my father on Saturday mornings, particularly the year I was four, and I’ve spent a lot of time since playing with waves on beaches.
The illustrations are outstanding, done in blue & white & black & grays/tans. The layout and shape of the book is even perfect; it’s done in widescreen-like format. The youngest child will be able to “read’ the story. The expressions on the girl’s face and her general expressiveness, and that of the flock of birds, is also wonderful. The creator of this book has her BFA in painting and her MA in book arts (which I didn’t even know existed), and it shows!
I read this on a rainy, gloomy winter day, cold for San Francisco, although not typically cold winter weather, and my mood is not the best, but this book totally cheered me up. What a fun read!
I had this home from the library and was going to read it anyway, but almost immediately before I read it, I noticed it has been selected as one of the January books for the Picture Books Club at the Children's Books group. The theme for January is wordless picture books. I’ve loved so many of those and this one gets added to that list.
January 19, 2011
A delightful wordless picture book brought to my attention by the Children’s Picture Book Club monthly discussions found here http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/4... It is about a little girl at the beach and her interactions with a wave and some friendly seagulls. Fun illustrations with simple color choices, blue, white, and black make this book worth the read. One thing that was a bit perplexing and slightly annoying was in some of the illustrations the poor little girl lost a limb because of the page layout of the book. This would have been rated a four star otherwise. My daughter and I enjoyed reading this one together, it helped that we visited Hawaii in Sept of this year. I think it reminded us both of her first encounters with the ocean.
January 15, 2016
Wow. This is a beautiful, wordless picture book which tells the story of a shifting relationship between a kid and some ocean waves. There's a lot of humor, and allegorical undercurrents. It's working on a lot of levels at once, and the art is great.
July 26, 2017
Pulses with the child like wonderment in discovery...brought back log forgotten memories of the beach for me.
November 30, 2019
Chosen as one of the Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2008 by The New York Times, this charming wordless picture-book by Korean artist Suzy Lee tells the story of a young girl's adventure at the beach. Chasing the receding waves, and being chased by them in turn, the girl splashes and cavorts along the shore, by turns delighted with and frightened by her oceanic playmate, which leaves her a parting gift...
After finding Mirror , another of Suzy Lee's wordless picture-books, just delightful, I fully expected to be charmed by Wave, and in many respects, I was not disappointed. There is the same sense of imagination and fun here, as in the other book, where a girl plays a game with her reflection. The sense of movement in Wave, the feeling of both menace and delight - after all, it is only toward the end that the reader discovers that the mother has been standing nearby the entire time - make it very involving.
That said, if you are going to tell a story with pictures alone, then it is very important indeed that you get your page layout and book design right, and someone really dropped the ball on this one. There were a number of two-page spreads where important pieces of the artwork were swallowed in the gutter. This was particularly frustrating in the scene in which girl confronts wave, her hand held up, doing... something that can't be seen. Without such a serious flaw, this might have been a four-star book for me. With it, it gets three.
After finding Mirror , another of Suzy Lee's wordless picture-books, just delightful, I fully expected to be charmed by Wave, and in many respects, I was not disappointed. There is the same sense of imagination and fun here, as in the other book, where a girl plays a game with her reflection. The sense of movement in Wave, the feeling of both menace and delight - after all, it is only toward the end that the reader discovers that the mother has been standing nearby the entire time - make it very involving.
That said, if you are going to tell a story with pictures alone, then it is very important indeed that you get your page layout and book design right, and someone really dropped the ball on this one. There were a number of two-page spreads where important pieces of the artwork were swallowed in the gutter. This was particularly frustrating in the scene in which girl confronts wave, her hand held up, doing... something that can't be seen. Without such a serious flaw, this might have been a four-star book for me. With it, it gets three.
December 21, 2008
beautiful-one of the best kid's artsy books i have fallen in love with this year. simple and lovely story of a girl and the ocean waves--made wish for San Fran again--we stay on the ocean side every time.
February 26, 2018
Suzy Lee's 'Wave' is a beautifully illustrated wordless picture-book. The story is about a girl visiting the sea side and each full bleed double spread visualises the small girl's emotions about the sea; from feeling anxious and inquisitive to playful and scared.
The use of the gutter in the full bleed double pages play an important part in the story telling. At the start of the book, the small girl stays on the left while the sea stays on the right. The gutter acts as a barrier between them, with the feeling of safety being available on the left and a feeling of unknown on the right. However, once the little girl becomes brave enough she crosses through the gutter of the book to the right hand side of the page and is playing in the water. On pages 9/10 the sea rises above the small girl's head showing power and authority and we can see that the small girl runs back over to the left hand side on the page back to safety. The gutter has been used cleverly as a storytelling tool without the need for text to clarify its meaning.
A prominent part of this picture-book, that I found especially endearing, was the use of colour. At the beginning of the book, only the sea has any colour (blue) while everything else is monochrome; including the small girl and the seagulls that appear with her on each page. I believe that this shows the sea having more power than the small girl and it also keeps the small girl and the sea as separate entities with nothing in common. However, throughout the book more of the blue colour is added to the pages such as the sky, the small girl's dress and even the gift of seashells that the sea provided are blue in colour. As each page goes on, more of the sea-blue colour is added to the small girl's left hand side of the book, indicating that she perhaps is no longer afraid of the sea and perhaps there is some relationship forming between the sea and the small girl. The use of colour to show that they share a bond is very endearing. On the last page of the book, the sea has spread across from the right, through the gutter and onto the left hand side of the page; sharing the space with the small girl. I believe this last page shows that the girl is no longer afraid of the sea and shows that they can share the same space and have formed a friendship, indicated by the crossing over of the sea onto the same page and shared colour scheme.
I think this book would be good for children that may be afraid of water /sea and also shows that although something may appear to be scary it can be overcome. Also, it shows that when sharing with something/someone that may be entirely different to you, some commonalities can be found and celebrated.
The use of the gutter in the full bleed double pages play an important part in the story telling. At the start of the book, the small girl stays on the left while the sea stays on the right. The gutter acts as a barrier between them, with the feeling of safety being available on the left and a feeling of unknown on the right. However, once the little girl becomes brave enough she crosses through the gutter of the book to the right hand side of the page and is playing in the water. On pages 9/10 the sea rises above the small girl's head showing power and authority and we can see that the small girl runs back over to the left hand side on the page back to safety. The gutter has been used cleverly as a storytelling tool without the need for text to clarify its meaning.
A prominent part of this picture-book, that I found especially endearing, was the use of colour. At the beginning of the book, only the sea has any colour (blue) while everything else is monochrome; including the small girl and the seagulls that appear with her on each page. I believe that this shows the sea having more power than the small girl and it also keeps the small girl and the sea as separate entities with nothing in common. However, throughout the book more of the blue colour is added to the pages such as the sky, the small girl's dress and even the gift of seashells that the sea provided are blue in colour. As each page goes on, more of the sea-blue colour is added to the small girl's left hand side of the book, indicating that she perhaps is no longer afraid of the sea and perhaps there is some relationship forming between the sea and the small girl. The use of colour to show that they share a bond is very endearing. On the last page of the book, the sea has spread across from the right, through the gutter and onto the left hand side of the page; sharing the space with the small girl. I believe this last page shows that the girl is no longer afraid of the sea and shows that they can share the same space and have formed a friendship, indicated by the crossing over of the sea onto the same page and shared colour scheme.
I think this book would be good for children that may be afraid of water /sea and also shows that although something may appear to be scary it can be overcome. Also, it shows that when sharing with something/someone that may be entirely different to you, some commonalities can be found and celebrated.
October 15, 2019
A delicately illustrated wordless picturebook which spotlights the beauty, mystery and chaos of the sea. As a child stands at the edge of the beach, she watches as the waves wash over to her and peel away, the perfect place for play and all watched over by some nosy seagulls. These really are natural, lovely scenes, and ones that will resonate with so many people's experiences with the sea.
Lee's choice of media here is so immersive and you can almost feel the tide bouncing out of the page. A very clever use of landscape format, which, to me, places the seashore into the reader's hands. I think it is interesting to think about whether the sea is a character in itself, interacting with the little girl and the seagull observers, but always returning to a distance. I liked the way that the waves almost became a liminal space, maybe a point of change for the young character as she explores and begins to understand the power of nature. Or perhaps it is a boundary where she can play and enjoy, but not one to be crossed. Lots to think about and all left open because of the absence of words.
Lee's choice of media here is so immersive and you can almost feel the tide bouncing out of the page. A very clever use of landscape format, which, to me, places the seashore into the reader's hands. I think it is interesting to think about whether the sea is a character in itself, interacting with the little girl and the seagull observers, but always returning to a distance. I liked the way that the waves almost became a liminal space, maybe a point of change for the young character as she explores and begins to understand the power of nature. Or perhaps it is a boundary where she can play and enjoy, but not one to be crossed. Lots to think about and all left open because of the absence of words.
December 12, 2018
I love wordless picture books. This one is cute :)
October 5, 2020
A beautifully illustrated story of a girls experiences at the seaside. At the beginning, the girl is incredibly timid, often being 'protected' by the border between the two pages. However, the girl grows in confidence throughout the book until she is happily playing amongst the waves.
October 5, 2008
My 9 yr old daughter brought this home from the school library. It has no words, only simple, beautiful drawings of a girl on the shore and of course, waves. You can make up your own story. My daugher and I have shared "reading" this together and it starts discussions about our times at the beach. Just a lovely, simple delight.
September 26, 2008
This wordless picture book is fabulous, with one exception. The edition I got from the library loses important parts of the illustrations in the gutter! ARGH. It's too nice of a book for that to happen!
May 23, 2015
Love, Love, Love, this book! No words, you make up the story from the pictures. Reminded me of spending time with my kids at the beach and chasing the waves. Looking forward to reading other books by Suzy Lee.
November 4, 2010
This book shows a little girl at the beach.
It does look an awfully lot like the sea between Korea and Japan. My son remembered when I lost my sandal in the waves there.
It does look an awfully lot like the sea between Korea and Japan. My son remembered when I lost my sandal in the waves there.
July 31, 2022
Wave by Suzy Lee may be the first wordless book I have actually sat down to read with the intention of reviewing (rather than just skimming). And the illustrations in this book really don't need any words. They're gorgeous.
I love the way the elements of color are used in the book. Everything except for the wave is black and white, and the wave is bright blue. I've always appreciated a black, white, and blue color palette and I really like the way this is used with space on the page, where sometimes the whole left side is gray, but the blue almost never approaches the left side even a little bit, except for that one page.
I like the girl's actions and how she seems to challenge the waves the entire time, and I love the way the birds seem to be mimicking her and learning about the water in the same way, despite probably having a lot more experience with the water. I especially like that one bird who always seems to be looking over its shoulder to check on the girl.
This story follows a very clear beginning, middle, and end structure. This would be fun to write into a whole class story for writing practice or as a mentor text for writing a sequential story even without words.
I love the way the elements of color are used in the book. Everything except for the wave is black and white, and the wave is bright blue. I've always appreciated a black, white, and blue color palette and I really like the way this is used with space on the page, where sometimes the whole left side is gray, but the blue almost never approaches the left side even a little bit, except for that one page.
I like the girl's actions and how she seems to challenge the waves the entire time, and I love the way the birds seem to be mimicking her and learning about the water in the same way, despite probably having a lot more experience with the water. I especially like that one bird who always seems to be looking over its shoulder to check on the girl.
This story follows a very clear beginning, middle, and end structure. This would be fun to write into a whole class story for writing practice or as a mentor text for writing a sequential story even without words.
July 2, 2019
Je l ai reproduit en théâtre de papier japonais !!!
August 26, 2024
Simple, but beautiful drawings. Man, this shade of blue is so eye catching
September 12, 2025
So pretty ✨
May 7, 2019
This is a stunning picture book which wordlessly tells the story of a little girl's trip to the beach and the hypnotic waves that she evades, crashes against and jumps into.
January 14, 2022
Aquela música da onda, rs...
October 4, 2016
1. Wave won the New York Times's Best Illustrated Book Award in 2008 and the Golden Medal from the Society of Illustrators.
2. This book would most likely be for kindergartners through third graders.
3. A girl goes to the beach but is afraid of the water. As her courage grows, she gets closer and closer to the water. As a huge wave heads her way, she runs away from the wave, but it splashes all over her. As she gets up, she is surrounded by shells, starfishes, and other riches of the waters.
4. Even though this book has about three colors, it has a lot more expressions to it. I love the fact that the facial expressions and her body language tells us exactly how she is feeling. I can relate to the girl because that was me when I was little. I didn't like the water but ended up loving the beach. We know the feeling of disliking something and changing the way we feel about it.
5. a) One possible in-class use would be setting the classroom as a beach to know what the girl felt like on the beach. This is a great way for the children to make connections since there are no words and to promote creativity and imagination.
b) Another use for this book is for the children to draw a picture of a beach looks like to them. It allows them to try to remember the details and setting of the book. For example: the birds, shells, sand, and waves.
c) This may be for students who are a bit older like second graders and up but another use can be to have the children make their own wordless book. This allows them to think about all the expressions one person can have and how it would be shown and the concepts of a wordless book.
2. This book would most likely be for kindergartners through third graders.
3. A girl goes to the beach but is afraid of the water. As her courage grows, she gets closer and closer to the water. As a huge wave heads her way, she runs away from the wave, but it splashes all over her. As she gets up, she is surrounded by shells, starfishes, and other riches of the waters.
4. Even though this book has about three colors, it has a lot more expressions to it. I love the fact that the facial expressions and her body language tells us exactly how she is feeling. I can relate to the girl because that was me when I was little. I didn't like the water but ended up loving the beach. We know the feeling of disliking something and changing the way we feel about it.
5. a) One possible in-class use would be setting the classroom as a beach to know what the girl felt like on the beach. This is a great way for the children to make connections since there are no words and to promote creativity and imagination.
b) Another use for this book is for the children to draw a picture of a beach looks like to them. It allows them to try to remember the details and setting of the book. For example: the birds, shells, sand, and waves.
c) This may be for students who are a bit older like second graders and up but another use can be to have the children make their own wordless book. This allows them to think about all the expressions one person can have and how it would be shown and the concepts of a wordless book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 560 reviews