This is a beautiful book. The illustrations are beautiful and the story is beautiful. 
 Themes encouraged/ taught are: learning, traveling to meet different people, respect for other cultures, treasuring people we love in our heart, living by the sea, sharing with younger generations, honoring previous generations and doing something to make the world more beautiful. 
 All that said, I have to confess, my son is not very interested in this book. My feeling is that it may appeal to women, moms, daughters and girls a bit more than boys because of it's strong feminine themes.