Foam-flecked green waves decorate the endpages with gently smiling seals zipping through the ocean and lounging on the rocks. The story begins on a sandy beach where Noah, a small brown boy and his Nana are settling down. Noah longs to set sail in their little boat and go to see the seals, but Nana is still working on the boat.
Noah digs in the sand as he imagines his very own seal, "a speckled seal with whiskers and shining eyes." and is delighted to see a seal in the sand. Readers will feel his joy as he carefully shapes and decorates his seal and relaxes in the sand and his sadness as, after hiding in the broken boat during a short storm, he finds his sand-seal gone. Nana tells him they'll go sailing tomorrow, but just at that disappointing moment, everything comes right again as Noah sees his seal - a real seal, speckled and smiling, watching them out in the ocean. He and Nana set sail in their boat and the final endpages reiterate the waters at the beginning, filled with seals, with Nana and Noah zipping through them in their sailboat.
Layn Marlow is a British author and illustrator and this is the first of her books that I've seen, but I hope not the last. It's a quiet story, matched by a gentle palette of pale sand and blue-green ocean, with just a hint of white froth, but a deeply satisfying one. Noah's patience is rewarded and his imagination justified as his seal seems to come to life and he gets his promised sail after all, out to see the seals.
Verdict: I'm always looking for picture books that show children of color out in the natural world, and this delightful story shows a loving family relationship, imagination, and may inspire readers to try creating their own sand animals as well. A great choice for beach or seal storytimes and sure to become a family favorite bedtime story. Highly recommended.
ISBN: 9781536218510; Published June 2021 by Candlewick; Review copy provided by the publisher; Donated to the library
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