THE STORY OF THE SEA GLASS, written by Anne Wescott Dodd, illustrated by Mary Beth Owens, Down East Books, Camden, 1999, hardcover, 32 pages, $15.95.

There is little in life as satisfying as discovering just the right picture book that delights and nourishes the eyes, the mind, the heart and the soul. Anne Wescott Dodd’s “The Story of the Sea Glass” is one of the most exquisite examples of this I have ever had the pleasure to read in over 20 years as an adult lover of children’s literature.

When Nicole finds a small, broken shell on a crowded city beach, her grandmother comments, “Oh, Nicole, how you would love the sea I knew when I was a child!” Fascinated by Nana’s memories of her youth, Nicole suggests that they visit her old island home when school is out for the summer.

When they visit Nana’s childhood beach they collect shells and sea glass. At first, most of the sea glass is green, white, or brown. Suddenly, they see a red piece gleaming like a jewel. It reminds Nana of something she did when she was Nicole’s age.

In the home where Nana was raised was a parlor filled with fragile, breakable things that were forbidden territory to children. A red glass vase, one of her great-grandmother’s most prized wedding presents, was especially off limits. But red was her favorite color. One dragging summer day, that vase attracted her like a magnet. As she held the crimson glass in front of her eyes, savoring its magical transformation of the familiar seascape, her cat, Minou, brushed against her leg, startling her. The vase crashed to the floor.

Nana tossed the broken glass into the ocean to keep her mother from seeing it and regretted not saving one piece.

Now she and Nicole sit wondering if the ocean is offering up a precious fragment of the vase, smoother and frosted to a new beauty. They decide to collect more sea glass to make sun catchers to remember the special days they’ve shared. (Instructions on how to make one are included.)

In the same way that different sizes, colors and shapes of sea glass come together to form enchanting sun catchers, Dodd gathered inspirational fragments from a variety of sources to create this gentle book.

She evoked memories of her own grandmother’s parlor. “No one sat there except when there were visitors. The chairs were hard. It was not a child’s place.”

She drew upon the universal desire to hold that which is off-limits, recalling how as an adult, she lightly touched a van Gogh painting in a museum. She thought about the rarity of red sea glass and the intriguing mystery of the origin of the individual pieces of glass.

And she called upon treasured moments spent beach combing and creating with her own grandchildren.

Owens’ illustrations capture not only the story line but the vibrant spirit of the book with a Norman Rockwell-like vitality and honesty. The pictures of Nicole and Nana glow with the warmth and intimacy of their relationship and the joy they find in each other’s company. The child Nana’s sense of awe and delight viewing a magical red world and her mixed feelings of regret and indignation — Minou was not blamed — when she was sent to her room without supper are brought vividly to life.

I especially love Owens’ art because her young models aren’t limited to the ’90s trendy good looks many kids can’t achieve. My own lovely Katie — sturdy, round-cheeked and wavy-haired like Nicole — studied each picture and declared passionately, “Mom, she looks like me and she’s beautiful. Mom, I’m beautiful too!”

Owens’ familiarity with and love of the sea and its treasures also come shining through. “I live on the Damariscotta River within fifty yards of the shoreline. Every day, when I walk I see shells, the beach, sea glass — all the things in the book — on my doorstep.”

If you’re a parent or grandparent, give a priceless gift to a treasured child this Christmas. Give this book with enclosed homemade coupon that promises time alone together with none of our modern technologies allowed to intrude. Share memories of your own childhood. Create together a special craft to celebrate your sharing time and love for each other. Long after the latest “must have” toys have been forgotten, this experience will live on in your child’s heart.