May Searches for the Sea

Author: Đỗ Giáp Nhất

Illustrator: Lê Thị Mai Phương

Translator: Alisha Berger

My village is covered in

chilly white fog.

“In my village, there is sand as black as coal,” says my teacher.

He teaches us the alphabet and numbers. None of us know where his village is.

When I ask, he simply says, “I’m from the village near the sea.”

“Where is it?” I ask.

“Is your villagebuffalo big?

Is your village pig fat?”

“The sea does not have big buffaloes or fat pigs. The sea has a lot of fish and warm sunshine.”

How I love the sound of that. A warm sea! I don’t like my village.

It has no sunshine, only fog.

“I want to see the sea!” I tell my teacher.

Teacher says, “The sea is far, far away.

You can’t see itfrom here.”

“But my mother says if you are standing on something high,

you can see far away!”

I run up the hill, tiptoe to the edge and look down.

My teacher asks, “What do you see?”

“I see cherry blossoms andgrazing cows. But I can’t see the sea!”

“Then you’re not standing high enough.”

“I will stand on this big rock, then!” Teacher helps me climb up.

“Can you see the sea

now?” he asks.

“Not yet! I see only terraces,” I sigh. “And I see Thái people withblack skirts carrying logs. And Hmông people with red skirts carrying cloth to themarket.”

“ I must stand up higher. ”

I tell my teacher that I will climb the highest tree on the hill!

“What do you see now?” he asks.

“I see our waterfall and the sparklingstream.”

I am quiet while I think. Then I say, “Oh! So my village has its own beauty. But I still want to see your sea,teacher.”

“Climb down, May,” my teacher says. “ The sea is very far away.You will have to wait until you learn the alphabet, until your legs are ashard as rock and you can walk all the way there. But I have an idea in the meantime.”

“Here!” says my teacher.

“ Look at this. It’s a book. Inside this book, you can see the sea and other new and magical things.”

I see blue, blue, blue. “What is this, teacher?” I ask.

“This is the sea's surface. The sea is formedby hundreds of rivers. The river is formed by hundreds of streams.”

“What about this?” I point to a strange shape. “What is this wooden piecewith cloth?”

“That wooden piece is a boat. That cloth isthe sail. This is a fishing boat, May. The sea has fish as big as houses!”

I am quiet while I think.

If the fishes are as big as houses,then the sea must be enormous.

I smile at my teacher.

“ I thought the sea was

too far away for me.

But it’sright here, in this little book!”

Glossary

Thái, Hmông: the names of two ethnic groupsin Vietnam.

This book was made possible by Pratham Books' StoryWeaver platform. Content under Creative Commons licenses can be downloaded, translated and can even be used to create new stories provided you give appropriate credit, and indicate if changes were made. To know more about this, and the full terms of use and attribution, please visit the following link .

Story Attribution:

This story:May Searches for the Seais translated byAlisha Berger. The © for this translation lies with Room to Read, 2012. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.Based on Original story:'Biển Ở Đâu?', byĐỗ Giáp Nhất. © Room to Read , 2012. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.

Other Credits:

This story 'Where is the Sea?' has been published on StoryWeaver by Room to Read.

Images Attributions:

Cover page:A girl with a book in her hand, byLê Thị Mai Phương© Room to Read, 2012. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.Page 2:Man and a girl strolling down the road, byLê Thị Mai Phương© Room to Read, 2012. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.Page 3:Man and girl talking, byLê Thị Mai Phương© Room to Read, 2012. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.Page 4:Pigs and dogs flying over a man and a girl, byLê Thị Mai Phương© Room to Read, 2012. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.Page 5:Girl looks worryingly towards a valley, byLê Thị Mai Phương© Room to Read, 2012. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.Page 6:Mountains, byLê Thị Mai Phương© Room to Read, 2012. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.Page 7:Girl walking down a path, byLê Thị Mai Phương© Room to Read, 2012. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.Page 8:Girl surrounded by trees, byLê Thị Mai Phương© Room to Read, 2012. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.Page 9:Man helping a girl to climb a rock, byLê Thị Mai Phương© Room to Read, 2012. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.Page 10:Man and girl looking over a valley, byLê Thị Mai Phương© Room to Read, 2012. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.Disclaimer:https://www.storyweaver.org.in/terms_and_conditions

Some rights reserved. This book is CC-BY-4.0 licensed. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. For full terms of use and attribution, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This book was made possible by Pratham Books' StoryWeaver platform. Content under Creative Commons licenses can be downloaded, translated and can even be used to create new stories provided you give appropriate credit, and indicate if changes were made. To know more about this, and the full terms of use and attribution, please visit the following link .

Images Attributions:

Page 11:Man and a girl walking and holding hands, byLê Thị Mai Phương© Room to Read, 2012. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.Page 12:Girl sitting on a tree branch, byLê Thị Mai Phương© Room to Read, 2012. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.Page 13:Man helping girl to climb down from a tree, byLê Thị Mai Phương© Room to Read, 2012. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.Page 14:Man and girl reading a book, byLê Thị Mai Phương© Room to Read, 2012. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.Page 15:Boats on water, byLê Thị Mai Phương© Room to Read, 2012. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.Page 16:Boats, byLê Thị Mai Phương© Room to Read, 2012. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.Page 17:Girl surrounded by drawings of fish, byLê Thị Mai Phương© Room to Read, 2012. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.Page 18:A boat's view from the fish perspective underwater, byLê Thị Mai Phương© Room to Read, 2012. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.Page 19:Watery background, byLê Thị Mai Phương© Room to Read, 2012. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.Disclaimer:https://www.storyweaver.org.in/terms_and_conditions

Some rights reserved. This book is CC-BY-4.0 licensed. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. For full terms of use and attribution, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

May Searches for the Sea (English)

May lives in a mountaintop village miles away from the sea. When her teacher tells her class about his own village by the ocean, May is breathless. She is desperate to see this mysterious sea—but how?

This is a Level 3 book for children who are ready to read on their own.

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