David Wisniewski was an artist who worked as a clown and shadow puppeteer before turning to cut paper and children's books. Wisniewski used an X-Acto knife, double-stick foam tape and, he said in an interview, ''a lot of No. 11 blades,'' He made from 800 to 1,000 cuts to do the 16 illustrations in one of his books. He used his layered cut-paper technique in many books, including Golem.
This is one of my favorite picture book "read-alouds" for a number of reasons. The diversity and authenticity of "The Wave..." in its representation of Tlingit tribal history and culture is huge. ( )

The first feature I noticed while reading this book was the textured illustrations. The illustrations connected emotions to the landscapes and setting. The reader could see the anger in the ocean waves. There were waves crashing in every direction with broken trees and chaos intertwined. Without reading the text, you can tell that there is great destruction and panic arising. The illustrator also expresses the emotion of tranquility when there was peace on land. The colors were calm and put the reader at ease. There were not any angry strokes as shown in the ocean. Instead, the forest was neatly drawn demonstrating there was nothing to worry about. All of the illustrations in this book grasped the readers attention right away since it was so unique and interesting. Another unique feature was the textboxes used. Each textbox had tribal designs as the border along with a tribal symbol on top. This feature made the reader curious about the culture of the characters.
The illustrations was not the only thing that made the reader interested in this book. The beginning of the book really hooked the reader. While reading the first page the reader wondered why there was a war canoe trapped in the trunk of an extremely tall tree. David Wisniewski ended his first page saying, “How did it come to rest in this unlikely place? The few who remembered will tell you this…” As a reader I became so interested in this story that I did not want to stop reading.
David Wisniewski did a fantastic job in keeping the reader engaged throughout the whole story. I could not put the book down because there were so many critical and interesting events. First, the main character Kchokeen, got stuck in a deep hollow log and needed to be rescued. I wondered how she would get rescued from such a dangerous situation. But, an unexpected huge wave roared and swept the log away. Later, a mysterious boat was near the village. This people in this boat ended up destroying most of the village through violence. The reader would then begin to wonder how Kchokeen would save the day. Instead of the wave causing a threat to Kchokeen, it ended up saving her and the village. The wave swallowed the boat with the men who threatened the village, while placing Kchokeen’s boat safely in a high tree. This story kept me on my toes throughout the whole book. ( )

Fine condition