The Seal on the Beach
Mara Bergman and Brita Granström
Walker Books

This treasure of a picture book celebrates the delights of a British seaside holiday: sand dunes, cliff walks, bracing salt water bathing, beach huts, a pier, a boat trip, ice-cream and the littoral wild life to be seen. It’s also a story of a young girl, Maggie’s anxiety; about missing her Mum, her new-born baby brother sick n hospital and the seal pup abandoned on the beach, which she finds stranded among the pebbles while out walking with her Uncle Jack and Aunt Jean.

It’s the most amazing thing she’s ever seen and she feels very protective towards it, so much so that it haunts her dreams.

Her aunt and uncle, as well as the lifeguards to whom they report their find, reassure Maggie that the seal mother will return. That doesn’t happen however and a very sickly little seal has to be rescued and cared for by the RSPCA.

There’s a happy ending though both for Maggie’s own family and the seal pup, named after her, which she sees returned to the sea.

Mara Bergman’s episodic, poetic prose is every bit as elegant as Brita Granstrom’s beautiful watercolours, which are a joy to behold. Feast your eyes on the seaweed, snail and shell strewn endpapers before reading the story with children. For adult sharers it will likely bring back memories of their own childhood summer seaside adventures.