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Children's Fiction New Baby

I Want to Build a Seahouse (pb)

by (author) Whitney Moran

illustrated by Josee Bisaillon

Publisher
Nimbus Publishing
Initial publish date
Apr 2023
Category
New Baby, Siblings, Boats, Ships & Underwater Craft, Imagination & Play
Recommended Age
3 to 7
Recommended Grade
p to 2
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781774711491
    Publish Date
    Apr 2023
    List Price
    $14.95

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Description

I want to build a seahouse
A place that's just for me...

In a lighthouse on the sea lives a young girl who is about to become a big sister. Trouble is, she doesn't want a little sister. With her peaceful life disrupted, the girl's only option is to run away—and build her very own seahouse! With a foghorn for a doorbell and a fence of fishing rope, windows made of sea glass, buoys to help it float — and a pirate flag for safety (of course), she'll have everything she needs.

The girl imagines all of the adventures she'll have, talking parrot in tow: harvesting seaweed from her garden; telling ghost stories to merfolk; charting the tides and sailing by moonlight. But there's a loneliness that creeps in whenever she thinks of her family back on land. And there's those pesky stormy seas to consider...

A poetic ode to the childhood yearning for freedom, sprinkled with new-sibling jealousy, the debut picture book by editor Whitney Moran, whimsically illustrated with a magnificent coastal palette by award-winning artist Josée Bisaillon, is a heartfelt story of family and independence, and a celebration of imagination and the natural world.

About the authors

Whitney Moran has always lived by the sea, and never too far away from a lighthouse. She is the managing editor of Nimbus Publishing and Vagrant Press in Kjipuktuk (Halifax, Nova Scotia) and makes her home in a seahouse in West Dover with her partner and their Old English Sheepdog.

Whitney Moran's profile page

Jos&eacutee Bisaillon a illustr&eacute plus de trente-cinq livres pour enfants et cr&eacute&eacute de nombreuses illustrations pour des magazines et des journaux. Elle a &eacutet&eacute finaliste au Prix litt&eacuteraire du Gouverneur g&eacuten&eacuteral &agrave deux reprises et a remport&eacute le prestigieux Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award pour The Snow Knows. Il s’agit du quatri&egraveme ouvrage de Jos&eacutee avec Orca, apr&egraves My Head in the Clouds et Bedtime 123 &eacutecrit par Eric Walters, un succ&egraves de librairie. Elle vit en banlieue de Montr&eacuteal avec sa famille.

Josee Bisaillon's profile page

Editorial Reviews

The story, told in bouncy quatrains (you can almost hear the hornpipe), is full of nautical imagery…. Whitney Moran's jaunty, seaside-inspired text is matched by rollicking yet soft-edged illustrations by Josée Bisaillon?[who] captures the sea's many moods with swirls of colour…. This Maritime tale offers a lively and unique way for any young seafarer with a new sibling and for landlubbers too.

Canadian Children's Book News

Filled with warmth and whimsy, Whitney Moran's debut picture book is a playful, spirited tale. Rollicking rhymes dance blithely off each page as the seafaring adventuress envisions her new nautical life. With a lilting lyricism, the text is vibrant and energetic and captures a sense of exuberance while also subtly and sensitively depicting the conflicting emotions that a child experiences with the arrival of a new sibling.

Atlantic Books Today

The concept is both touching and thoroughly relatable. The inclusive illustrations do a great job of building out the world of the narrative, as the reader can see themself in the neighbourhood of the story.

Quill & Quire

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