The Seal Garden

January 22, 2018
This third title in the My Great Bear Rainforest series features striking underwater photographs of seals, sea lions, and otters. A powerful storm has come to the Great Bear Sea, and the marine animals have retreated to their underwater sanctuary, where rocks protect them from larger predators. Filled with pink, red, yellow, and green seaweed, the seal garden is aptly named, and McAllister’s photos of seals peering above the waterline and sea lions lounging on rocks are equally compelling. Read builds a sense of the lurking dangers awaiting seals outside the garden—orcas “patrol the garden like police”—and concludes by evoking a sense of the broader ecosystem that the series explores: “It’s the way of life in the Great Bear Sea, where every animal, no matter how big or small, has a place to live and a role to play.” Ages 5–8.