Noah’s Seal

At the edge of the wild sea, Noah waits patiently for the moment when Nana says they can go and find the seals, because they don’t visit Noah and Nana’s part of the shore anymore.

While he waits for Nana to repair the boat, Noah starts digging a hole in the sand. Yet, when he looks around, he realises that the pile of sand next to him now looks like a seal.

Smoothing the seal into shape, Noah makes it a face from pebbles and seaweed, and lies down next to it, watching the sea. Yet when a storm blows up, Noah’s sand seal is washed away. But, could it be that a real seal will find Noah, and lead Nana’s boat to the place where all the seals live?

Layn Marlow’s utterly delightful story about a boy’s love for seals and his faith in finding them is touching and sensitively told, illustrated in a mix of soft watercolours and beautifully details. There’s something here about “if you build it, they will come” in Noah’s summoning of the seals by building a sand one and imbuing it with love: a message about believing in our wishes and working hard to make them happen.