This is a lovely tale about loneliness, happiness, and possibility. It's full of beautiful illustrations that could narrate themselves. A combination that creates a touching story you will fall in love with.
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The uncorker had one job, but an important job, collecting and delivering the message bottles. The uncorker did it without fail every single day. He went to the length and breadth of the land to deliver messages. Rain or shine, he did it. And his delivery made most people happy. He also had a wish and hoped it would happen someday. One day, the uncorker found a message bottle but needed a recipient. He carried it everywhere but failed. What did the uncorker do with the message bottle?

We picked this book for its cover. Repayment of kindness is the storyline. The book will appeal to those who understand the joy of receiving snail mail. The illustrations are so reminiscent of the letter era.

Adults will treasure the postal era, and children will recognise the beauty of that era as well as a message of empathy in Michelle Cueva's beautifully illustrated The Uncorker of Ocean Bottles. ( )

This was a unique book I came across while searching for children's books. This book is about a man who waits for messages in the bottle that wash up on the beach and he tries to find the person they are intended for. After awhile he hopes that one day a bottle message will be for him, eventually one is and the story only goes up from there ( )

Beautiful beautiful illustrations. I wanted to fall into this book and live in the pages. Stead also illustrated A Sick Day for Amos McGee which is also a book with lovely illustrations! I love the particular turns of phrase in the writing as well - "...the waves tipped their white postman hats to the Uncorker...", "...he would journey until his compass because rusty and he felt loneliness as sharp as fish scales," "...for a letter can hold the treasure of a clam-hugged pearl." Quite beautiful in a children's book.
I am really curious about the origins of the Uncorker. This book doesn't seem magically-real enough for him to actually be a manifestation of the desire for connection or whatever (though that's perfectly whimsical (also I just read another reviewer who wanted to call this whimsical-realism which I'm obviously down with))...but the more I think of it, the more I like that interpretation better than my other one which is that the Uncorker is the product of an unconventional and possibly abusive household. His parent/guardian was mentally ill or otherwise detached from reality and raised him lonely in this house on a hill with the sole purpose of Uncorking, didn't allow him to make friends or see anyone outside of the message in a bottle visits and told him that none of them would want to be his friend anyway because he was smelly, left him emotionally stunted and unable to really connect with people and then died, leaving him to just continue on without companionship outside of a cat and a cow and without a name. Hopefully the end of this book represents the small seaside town attempting to bring the Uncorker into their community now that his controlling guardian has died. ( )

A beautiful story about loneliness, community, miracle and beauty of life and friendship. I absolutely loved this book's meaning and illustrations! ( )