A handsomely illustrated wordless fantasy begins with a young, brown-skinned girl on a beach starting a sand castle. When the sun sets hours later, the girl must leave her extraordinary creation behind. The castle is at the mercy of the tide, but it’s not just the structure that’s in danger. From a turret window an aging man and two children watch the rising water before they and others escape in a boat tossed and tumbled by the waves. A boy falls overboard and makes some startling discoveries about life beneath the sea (in what is certainly an homage to David Wiesner’s Flotsam ) before he’s returned to the boat by mermaids. After making landfall on a rocky island (the outcrop seen from the beach in the opening pages), the small inhabitants find shelter. Meanwhile, a new day arrives on back on shore, and the young girl returns to the beach and begins building ... Dennis Nolan leaves room for children to bring their own meaning to the story’s concluding pages when a light is seen in the new castle’s window at nightfall in this imaginative outing. (Ages 4–9)

On a beautiful sunlit beach, a girl builds a magnificent sandcastle. As night falls the girl heads for home. Waves move ever closer to the castle, threatening its survival. Suddenly, in one of its windows, a light comes on . . .

Sea of Dreams is a Publishers Weekly Best Children's Picture Books title for 2011.