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The Seal Children

by Jackie Morris

Interest age: 4 to 9
Reading age: 6+

Published by Otter-Barry Books, 2016

  • Myths and legends
  • Picture books

About this book

When the beautiful-voiced Ewan sings as he fishes, he draws the attention of a selkie - half woman, half seal - who falls in love with him and comes ashore to his coastal Welsh village to be his wife. Years later, however, after their children Ffion and Morlo are born, it becomes time for the selkie-mother to go back to the sea.

However, when the villagers need money to move away to the New World, Ffion and Morlo call their mother back; she breathes the salt breath of the sea into Morlo's mouth and takes him down beneath the waves to find all the sea treasure the villagers will ever need.

A tender and mythical exploration of the selkie myth in a family context, with a gentle and evocative use of watercolour, this breathtakingly beautiful book is one to treasure.

About the author

Jackie Morris is a British writer and illustrator. Morris was born in Birmingham in 1961. Her family moved to Evesham when she was four. As a child she was told that she couldn't be an artist, but despite this information being drilled into her by teachers she decided to throw caution to the wind and learn to paint. 

On leaving college she found work in editorial, illustrating magazines like Radio Times, New Statesman, New Society and Country Living. She worked for years illustrating books and in 2005 her book The Seal Children won the Tir Na N-Og Award. In 2016 she was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal for Something About a Bear, which she later won in 2019 for her illustration of The Lost Words, book of poetry by Robert Macfarlane with illustrations by Morris. 

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