Respecting and Returning the Beauty of the Ocean....Treasures by Susan and David Shane

     There is an old saying---the sea giveth and the sea taketh away.  Living by the sea, the young family that we are introduced to in the beginning of Susan and David Shane's story, Treasures,  knows this phrase all too well, as they enjoy the beauty and the wonders of the ocean and all that it brings and let's you hold on to, at least for a little while.  Their young children collect stones, shells and driftwood throughout the years, putting their natural beauty on display for all to see in the comfort of their home. 

     Fast forward to the future, and our tale picks up where the young couple are now old and unable to live in their home along the water by themselves.  Their daughter, now an adult, brings along her son to her childhood home to help her parents pack their belongings.  The young boy comes across his mother's collection of seashells, and while he is admiring them, his mother tells him that the time has come for him to return the collection back to the ocean.
      While standing along the gray waters edge, the young boy's feet begin to settle into the sandy shoreline as he suddenly hears a voice.  The voice beckons from the waters in front of him, imploring that, "it took years for my waves to shape those beautiful stones.  I need my treasures back.  I need them back for other children to gather."  Reminiscent of his mother when she was young, the boy sits down into the sand, loosens the cap off of the jar, and with one last look, he gives the ocean her wish.
       As I read this lovely short story to my class of first graders last week, I was instantly transported back to my own childhood, having grown up minutes away from the Long Island Sound on Long Island, New York's North Shore.  I too, like the young children featured in this tale, collected mussel, clam and discarded miniature snail shells along the rocky shoreline.  I too, collected various sizes of driftwood to act as a natural border in our backyard vegetable garden.  But, unlike the boy in this story, I never returned my collection of treasures back to the waters of the Sound. Until now.  Let me explain...
          Last year, my family and I returned from a scenic cruise to the Bahamas, where we were lucky enough to enjoy a private island called Castaway Cay.  As we departed the ship, our cruise director asked us all to just leave footprints behind when we departed the island.  At first, it didn't dawn on me, and while enjoying the beauty of the white sand and crystal clear turquoise shore, I gathered a few little shells to take back with me to place around a frame I wanted to make marking our trip.  As I returned the ship, I remembered what our cruise director said, and I felt instantly guilty as I looked at my tiny collection of ocean treasures.  Later that evening, I decided to take a solitary walk on the deck as our ship returned back to the United States.  As the spray off of the dark Atlantic below gently hit my face, I clutched these few little shells to my heart; made a silent, single wish to myself and gently let the shells fall through my fingers to their rest on the ocean floor below.  Somehow, after reading this sentimental tale, it too, would be my hope that my treasures will someday be able to delight a young child somewhere, and that they too, will return them back to the sea that they call home.

Treasures
Written by Susan and David Shane & Illustrated by Paul Casale
Publisher:  Richard C. Owen Publishers, Inc.
Website:  www.RCOwen.com
ISBN: 1-57274-285-2
Retails for $5.75 (on Amazon.com)