The Uncorker of Ocean Bottles

by Michelle Cuevas, illus. by Erin Stead

This magnificent picture book is written by Michelle Cuevas and illustrated by Caldecott Medal Winner Erin Stead. This is sure to be pulled off of your shelves again and again. Illustrated in beautiful pencil and chalk pastel illustrations in hues that evoke the reflection of light against the water of the ocean, the pictures mimic the poetic words.

In a little house by the sea lives the Uncorker of ocean bottles. Day after day, the Uncorker delivers messages found in bottles from the sea to the inhabitants of the town. He too, longs to get a letter.

"But then he remembered that this was about as likely as finding a mermaid's toenail on the beach. For he had no name. He had no friends. He stank of seaweed and salt and fishermen's feet. No one would ever write him a letter."

And then one day...the Uncorker finds a letter that is not addressed to anyone, and it is an invitation to a party. He visits the maker of cakes, the candy shop owner, the woman buying chocolate-dipped treats, the young girl in a green dress.

"The Uncorker asked a seagull, a sailor, and a one-man band. But nobody could claim the letter--nobody in the sky, or sand, or sea."

The Uncorker is disheartened. It is the first message he has not been able to deliver! He makes his way down to the seashore...and there, standing by the water, are all the people he had tried to deliver the message to, ready to have a party! At long last, the Uncorker found the friends he was looking for all along.

"The Uncorker's Heart was a glass vessel filled to the brim."