The Boy Who Held Back the Sea (Picture Puffin Books)

From the award-winning and renowned illustrator Thomas Locker, beautiful oil-painted illustrations pair with this wonderful retelling of the traditional Dutch folktale. Jan had never done anything more heroic than shout for the guard because he'd imagined he'd seen a sea serpent. But when Jan discovered water trickling through a desolate stretch of the dike that protected his low-lying village, he knew he had to act fast. "Visually stunning."-- Publishers Weekly "Locker's depiction of nature overpowering humanity is especially significant to the story and to the Dutch people who have spent centuries battling the sea."-- School Library Journal