Beyond the Pond and The Ocean at the End of the Lane: Flip Sides of the Same Coin

This morning I was purchasing and came across a DELIGHTFUL title for kids. Beyond the Pond by Joseph Kuefler. Ernest D is a little boy who discovers the wide, deep world below and beyond the pond near his home. We are talking Unicorns, Sunken Ships, Sharks - almost everything a boy's imagination can cook. The best part of this book is the way Ernest looks at the world when he returns from the Pond.

Likewise, the most terrifying thing about Gaiman's Ocean at the End of the Lane is how readers look at the world after the last page. It's out there and one turn reveals it all in terrifying clarity. I read this book for the first time right after my youngest daughter had been in the hospital. I could not sleep after reading this and that has never happened to me before or since. No one grips the essential core of readers like Gaiman. I have read far and wide there are no words like his.

I love to see the same concept explored for child readers and BRAVE adult/ YA readers.