Fletcher and the Rockpool
Julia Rawlinson and Tiphanie Beeke
Graffeg

Summer has come, the ideal time for inquisitive young Fletcher fox and his mum to foray from their woodland home for a seaside visit.

While Mum makes a camp on the seashore, Fletcher heads down to the water’s edge, enjoying the feel of the sand beneath his paws and the waves splashing his toes. Coming upon a rockpool, he stretches himself out flat and gazes into the water observing the creatures and seaweed therein. Suddenly he notices that the pool is getting smaller and he’s concerned about the fate of the limpets and sea anemone. Unaware of the sea’s tidal ebb and flo phases, so misunderstanding what is happening, the helpful Fletcher dashes to and fro filling his bucket with water and tipping it into the seemingly ever shrinking rockpool.

His behaviour puzzles a watching seagull and it tries to tell him about the tide but Fletcher is distraught.

All he can do is save Little Crab he decides, so he takes it back up to where his Mum has made the camp, creates for it a seaweed blanket and falls asleep alongside the crustacean.

Imagine his surprise and joy when in the morning he finds …

Tiphanie Beeke’s soft glowing paintings (the final one with a sprinkling of silver) evoke both the seashore and Fletcher’s concerns about the rockpool fauna and flora and are a perfect match for Julia Rawlinson’s lyrical, wonderfully warm words as they both pay poetic tribute to the summery seaside.
I have no doubt this latest Fletcher story will resonate with young listeners, as well as introducing them to the idea of tidal movement.