I Want To Build a Seahouse

What is the most logical step for a young girl to take when she feels crowded out of her place in the family on the arrival of a new baby? How about to go off on the water to explore all the possibilities of life at sea?

The narrator of this story does just that in this highly-descriptive rhyming tale.

I’ll row until I find it
A perfect place to hide
The whales will be my neighbours
Seagulls will fill the sky.
A foghorn for a doorbell
A fence of fishing rope
I’ll build it out of bits and bobs
And buoys will help it float!

Once the cozy cabin atop its water-borne platform is finished, it is time to explore what else the surrounding playground has to offer in the way of food and entertainment and, certainly, companionship.

Life in the ocean is rich in its variety: there is much to see and think about. Having a seaweed garden and a talking parrot as a companion, are only two of the things conjured up by the girl’s imagination. However, the idea of what has been left behind lurks in the back of her thoughts, especially when the weather takes a turn for the worse. A solitary existence with no bedtime and no limits on what one can eat or do may seem ideal to an eight-year-old, but there is something to be said for the familiarity of the old life too.

The narrator reconsiders her initial wishes for independence.

I want to build a seahouse
I’ll anchor close to shore
One day I might decide I need
Room for three – or more…
I want to build a seahouse
But I’ll keep my real house too
Because no house could be a home
Unless it’s filled with you.

The last page shows a happy reunion of the narrator with parents and baby – on land! Prolific illustrator Bisaillon (who won the Marilyn Baillie Prize for her work in The Snow Knows www.cmreviews.ca/cm/vol23/no8/thesnowknows.html) has created a perfect seascape in watercolour. Bladderwrack, narwhals, storm-tossed waves and even a sea monster find their place on the pages of this light-filled book. The energetic heroine’s clear emotions range from satisfaction (at embarking on her journey) to fear (of the driving rain) to elation (at hosting a campfire for the merfolk).

The book comes from Halifax’s Nimbus Publishing, and the author, a Maritimer, herself, has beautifully infused the book with her own sensibilities about the sounds and sights of the sea. There is a touching pull between the longing for self-reliance and love for family in the girl’s thoughts.

I Want To Build a Seahouse is a heartfelt but also humourous story time piece for school and public librarians to share.