Sea Turns Sweet in New Kids’ Book

What happens when the fish, jellyfish and sea snails decide they’re tired of living in a salty sea? They make it sweet!

How they do it and what happens next is the intriguing tale told in a new bilingual children’s book, “El Mar Azucarado/Sea Sweet Sea,” printed in Costa Rica by Producciones del Río Nevado S.A.

The story was written by Roberto Boccanera, son of Argentine poet Jorge Boccanera and Mexican author Yazmín Ross, when he was 7 – a year after he moved to Costa Rica.

Whimsical full-color illustrations by Costa Rican artist Ruth Angulo accompany the text, translated from Spanish to English by Dick Gerdes, a Latin American literature professor in the United States.

The 24-page, hardcover book was printed by Graphos, the company that publishes discs for the Papaya Music label, and is the first of Producciones del Río Nevado’s new children’s collection entitled Pachanga Kids.

“SeaSweetSea” is sold at 7th Street Books in downtown San José and at Librería Internacional stores, and will soon be available at gift shops in tourism areas around the country. It costs approximately $10.