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Seal Child
While entranced by the seals that swim off the shore of the Maine island she visits during holidays, sixth grader Molly befriends an interesting girl her age who seems different from other humans.
208 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1989
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
September 20, 2025
Ahhh!!! This is the PEAK of my elementary years!! I reread this just a couple months ago. It’s so mystifying and deliciously intriguing. Molly is such a lovable protagonist, Meara is mysterious but colorful with a unique past, and their friendship is just beautiful. Everything else about the story is simply superb. The author did a captivating job.
October 6, 2019
I Loved this story as a girl. I must have read it hundreds of times between 4th and 7th grades. If you enjoy mythology about sea spirits and mermaids you will love this tale! Molly who visits with her neighbor from Maine every winter meets a new friend and learns about forgiveness and what it means to be truly selfless.
October 2, 2023
3.75 rounding up--didn't blow me away, but was quietly lovely and I'd happily give this to an upper elementary-school reader without worries. Found this completely by chance while browsing used books and couldn't be more delighted to discover a selkie book written before I was born. The author put her own spin on selkies' transformation, which while not traditional had properly selcouth and bittersweet vibes and worked beautifully in a young coming-of-age story.
November 4, 2017
#ReadKidsLit
October 12, 2016
I remember liking this book as a child. I recently came across it in a old box of paperbacks from storage and decided to reread it, since I couldn't remember what happened in the book, only that I had obviously liked it enough to hold onto a copy.
Hoo, boy.
Reading this book as an adult makes it obvious that the main character, Molly, has some obsessive behavior that is completely undealt with. Her family is on a short vacation on this island in the winter, and on the last two days of the vacation she meets this other little girl her age named Meara. She hangs out with this girl for two (two!) days, and then goes home and spends the months between winter and summer breaks being obsessive about Meara in a way that creeps me out:
* She receives one letter from Ruby about Meara, and then proceeds to write back about ten times even though she doesn't receive another response.
* In April she sees the first tips of crocuses and whispers "Oh Meara, how beautiful." because she knows Meara would just love them. Sometimes she doesn't say anything (like when she sees the bright red tulips) but there would be a quick little breath in her heart, and she'd want to tell Meara, and she would too, but in a quiet way, like thinking.
* On the days when it rained and she had a terrible time walking to school because of all the earthworms on the sidewalk, she'd think of Meara, sipping tea with Ruby, and she'd long to be there, just the three of them.
* Because of all these daydreams about Meara, she isn't bothered anymore that all the other girls already have their best friends picked... like Donna chooses Beth for pitcher at softball, or that Jeannie always sits next to Sarah at assembly, or Robin and Lorrie have been friends since kindergarten.
* When she's bored at school, she thinks about braiding Meara's hair.
* She buys giant chocolate chip cookies at lunchtime and breaks it in half, placing each half on a separate napkin (one for herself, one for Meara). While she daydreams, she nibbles some from her own half, and them some from the other half, and makes herself and Meara have a conversation in her head.
Just... oh my god. This girl needs some medication, or therapy, or something. This is creepy-obsessive even for a girl-girl romance novel, which this book isn't. But seriously, yo, with all the talk of "love", this book could totally slip into the LGBQ+ section.
* When Molly comes back for summer vacation - after only knowing this girl two days and spending the next several months fantasizing about being BFFs with her - she gets extremely jealous when Meara starts hanging out with her little brother instead of exclusively being her best friend. Ruby asks Molly, "Do you think love, real love, is ever a mistake?" and a page later, "It's good you love her so, but remember, there's no love without danger, not true love."
* When Molly finds out that Meara is a seal (from her little brother), she angrily confronts Meara, crying, "I don't care if you're a seal. I don't care what you are. I loved you first. You should have told me." and she repeats, "I loved you first, Meara. Why didn't you tell me?"
And then, of course [Spoiler warning] no sooner does Meara promise never to return to the ocean (because the next time she touches salt water she'll be permanently turned back into a seal), she has to dive in to save Molly's life from drowning. Molly and Meara (now a seal) hug goodbye and Molly pretty much never sees her again, even though she often goes looking, walking along the shore as the sun in setting, Meara's name pounding like a great bell in her chest.
So yeah. If this had been a teen romance, I might have been able to hand-wave the obsessive behavior, writing it off as the wild imaginings of young love. But as it is now, I'm a bit wary and creeped out by it, and a bit scared that childhood!me not only thought this was completely normal behavior, but liked it and identified with it enough to keep a copy of the book when I put my things in storage.
Hoo, boy.
Reading this book as an adult makes it obvious that the main character, Molly, has some obsessive behavior that is completely undealt with. Her family is on a short vacation on this island in the winter, and on the last two days of the vacation she meets this other little girl her age named Meara. She hangs out with this girl for two (two!) days, and then goes home and spends the months between winter and summer breaks being obsessive about Meara in a way that creeps me out:
* She receives one letter from Ruby about Meara, and then proceeds to write back about ten times even though she doesn't receive another response.
* In April she sees the first tips of crocuses and whispers "Oh Meara, how beautiful." because she knows Meara would just love them. Sometimes she doesn't say anything (like when she sees the bright red tulips) but there would be a quick little breath in her heart, and she'd want to tell Meara, and she would too, but in a quiet way, like thinking.
* On the days when it rained and she had a terrible time walking to school because of all the earthworms on the sidewalk, she'd think of Meara, sipping tea with Ruby, and she'd long to be there, just the three of them.
* Because of all these daydreams about Meara, she isn't bothered anymore that all the other girls already have their best friends picked... like Donna chooses Beth for pitcher at softball, or that Jeannie always sits next to Sarah at assembly, or Robin and Lorrie have been friends since kindergarten.
* When she's bored at school, she thinks about braiding Meara's hair.
* She buys giant chocolate chip cookies at lunchtime and breaks it in half, placing each half on a separate napkin (one for herself, one for Meara). While she daydreams, she nibbles some from her own half, and them some from the other half, and makes herself and Meara have a conversation in her head.
Just... oh my god. This girl needs some medication, or therapy, or something. This is creepy-obsessive even for a girl-girl romance novel, which this book isn't. But seriously, yo, with all the talk of "love", this book could totally slip into the LGBQ+ section.
* When Molly comes back for summer vacation - after only knowing this girl two days and spending the next several months fantasizing about being BFFs with her - she gets extremely jealous when Meara starts hanging out with her little brother instead of exclusively being her best friend. Ruby asks Molly, "Do you think love, real love, is ever a mistake?" and a page later, "It's good you love her so, but remember, there's no love without danger, not true love."
* When Molly finds out that Meara is a seal (from her little brother), she angrily confronts Meara, crying, "I don't care if you're a seal. I don't care what you are. I loved you first. You should have told me." and she repeats, "I loved you first, Meara. Why didn't you tell me?"
And then, of course [Spoiler warning] no sooner does Meara promise never to return to the ocean (because the next time she touches salt water she'll be permanently turned back into a seal), she has to dive in to save Molly's life from drowning. Molly and Meara (now a seal) hug goodbye and Molly pretty much never sees her again, even though she often goes looking, walking along the shore as the sun in setting, Meara's name pounding like a great bell in her chest.
So yeah. If this had been a teen romance, I might have been able to hand-wave the obsessive behavior, writing it off as the wild imaginings of young love. But as it is now, I'm a bit wary and creeped out by it, and a bit scared that childhood!me not only thought this was completely normal behavior, but liked it and identified with it enough to keep a copy of the book when I put my things in storage.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 22, 2008
CIP: "While entranced by the seals that swim off the shore of the Maine island she visits during holidays, sixth grader Molly befriends an interesting girl her age who seems different from other humans."
Maggie: Young Molly, desperate for new friends, finds what she is looking for in a mysterious new visitor to the island on which her family vacations. This is an intriguing novel, especially given that it is Peck's debut work for young readers, but I had some trouble with the author's liberties with the traditional Irish folklore. Worse, she doesn't acknowledge that the tales of selkies originated in Ireland and instead credits Scotland and New England as the birth places of such folklore. Nevertheless, Peck's strong female protagonist, who experiences loss not once but twice throughout the course of the book and comes out stronger in the end, is a delight to follow. Recommended for ages 9 through 12.
SLJ: "Gr 5-6. An involving first novel. Spending the Christmas vacation on an island in Maine with her parents and younger brother, Douglas, ten-year-old Molly hears the cries of a baby seal and finds the nightmarish body--skinned--of an adult seal on the beach. Not long after that, a girl comes to stay with Ruby, a widowed island woman whom Molly's family has known and loved for years. The girl, Meara, is loving, interested, and mysterious, and she eventually tells Molly that she is a seal, and that the dead seal was her mother. In the end, Meara sacrifices her time on land in order to save Molly's drowning dog, and she returns to the sea. Molly's conflicting emotions and needs are deeply felt, as is her love for the island. Characterization of the rest of the family and Ruby is sufficient if brief, but Douglas seems to change ages occasionally, being both too young and too old at times. Ruby's lost love and her connection with a bull seal who comes to console her in her grief is sketched in lightly, but adds a note of romance and mystery. Meara herself is fascinating yet somewhat ungrounded. Her desire to stay on land after her mother's death is surprising. By creating her own modern version of how selkies must make their choice between sea and land, establishing an arbitrary "once and once only," Peck intrigues readers but loses the power inherent in older legends of the seal people. Be that as it may, this is still a good story of friendship, love and loss, and the mysteries of the sea."
PW: "Improvising on the Celtic legend of the selkies--seals that take on human form--Peck has created an uneven but stylish first novel. Lured by the plaintive cries of a seal pup near her family's Maine cottage, young Molly stumbles over the gruesome remains of its butchered mother. Later, a mysterious girl shows up at Molly's elderly friend Ruby's house, a girl named Meara with glossy dark hair and odd ways. Readers will guess Meara's secret (she is a selkie) long before Molly does, but that won't spoil the bittersweet ending, in which Meara makes the ultimate sacrifice to save the life of her beloved new friend. Peck's prose doesn't always ring true--the first-person narrative clashes somewhat with the haunting, lyrical mood she's trying to create--and there are a few cliches (the wise elderly grandmother figure, for one). Nevertheless, Peck displays an eye for imagery (Molly's little brother Douglas looks at Meara "the way he looked at the candles on his birthday cake when he loved them too much to blow them out"), and proves herself a writer to watch. Illustrations not seen by PW. Ages 9-up."
Maggie: Young Molly, desperate for new friends, finds what she is looking for in a mysterious new visitor to the island on which her family vacations. This is an intriguing novel, especially given that it is Peck's debut work for young readers, but I had some trouble with the author's liberties with the traditional Irish folklore. Worse, she doesn't acknowledge that the tales of selkies originated in Ireland and instead credits Scotland and New England as the birth places of such folklore. Nevertheless, Peck's strong female protagonist, who experiences loss not once but twice throughout the course of the book and comes out stronger in the end, is a delight to follow. Recommended for ages 9 through 12.
SLJ: "Gr 5-6. An involving first novel. Spending the Christmas vacation on an island in Maine with her parents and younger brother, Douglas, ten-year-old Molly hears the cries of a baby seal and finds the nightmarish body--skinned--of an adult seal on the beach. Not long after that, a girl comes to stay with Ruby, a widowed island woman whom Molly's family has known and loved for years. The girl, Meara, is loving, interested, and mysterious, and she eventually tells Molly that she is a seal, and that the dead seal was her mother. In the end, Meara sacrifices her time on land in order to save Molly's drowning dog, and she returns to the sea. Molly's conflicting emotions and needs are deeply felt, as is her love for the island. Characterization of the rest of the family and Ruby is sufficient if brief, but Douglas seems to change ages occasionally, being both too young and too old at times. Ruby's lost love and her connection with a bull seal who comes to console her in her grief is sketched in lightly, but adds a note of romance and mystery. Meara herself is fascinating yet somewhat ungrounded. Her desire to stay on land after her mother's death is surprising. By creating her own modern version of how selkies must make their choice between sea and land, establishing an arbitrary "once and once only," Peck intrigues readers but loses the power inherent in older legends of the seal people. Be that as it may, this is still a good story of friendship, love and loss, and the mysteries of the sea."
PW: "Improvising on the Celtic legend of the selkies--seals that take on human form--Peck has created an uneven but stylish first novel. Lured by the plaintive cries of a seal pup near her family's Maine cottage, young Molly stumbles over the gruesome remains of its butchered mother. Later, a mysterious girl shows up at Molly's elderly friend Ruby's house, a girl named Meara with glossy dark hair and odd ways. Readers will guess Meara's secret (she is a selkie) long before Molly does, but that won't spoil the bittersweet ending, in which Meara makes the ultimate sacrifice to save the life of her beloved new friend. Peck's prose doesn't always ring true--the first-person narrative clashes somewhat with the haunting, lyrical mood she's trying to create--and there are a few cliches (the wise elderly grandmother figure, for one). Nevertheless, Peck displays an eye for imagery (Molly's little brother Douglas looks at Meara "the way he looked at the candles on his birthday cake when he loved them too much to blow them out"), and proves herself a writer to watch. Illustrations not seen by PW. Ages 9-up."
April 19, 2012
This story introduced me to the selkie legend (Peck modifies it a bit) and I’ve been hooked ever since. Just like Alice in Kevin Henke’s Junonia, Molly is a very relatable protagonist. She wants to feel more mature, but still has her insecure moments – moments when she wants to keep her best friend all to herself. The one thing that didn’t work for me was how quickly and easily Molly believed Meara’s secret. It didn’t seem realistic, even for a fantasy.
Even so, this was another book I borrowed multiple times from the library. Then I discovered Amazon.
~ Excerpt from my Postcards from La-La Land review
Even so, this was another book I borrowed multiple times from the library. Then I discovered Amazon.
~ Excerpt from my Postcards from La-La Land review
March 2, 2008
I read this one when I was a kid. It made me cry at the end. My recollection of it now is kind of hazy... You've got a girl (let's call her girl1) visiting a relative somewhere, and that relative has a girl (girl2) about the same age staying with her. Girl2 is kind of mysterious, but she and girl1 become friends. Girl2 stays away from the ocean but can swim in clear water. There's selkie mythology thrown in, but I don't want to spoil it for anyone (not that it takes much to put the pieces together...).
January 24, 2009
Seal Child is a great children's book. The story is fascinating and is good for any age. I read this book in third grade and was amazed by this fabulous work. All my friends have read and loved this book. I believe that it is something worth charishing for generations.
November 6, 2010
This was one of my favorite books when I was a kid. The imagery is extremely vivid and haunting. Even now, when the air has a certain crispness to it, I am jolted back to the shores of Maine where this story takes place. And I still wish to become a selkie.
November 4, 2012
This book is so beautiful and so sad. I first read it when I was just a kid, and the memory of it stayed with me for years. I recently bought a used copy from Amazon, and upon re-reading, it is just as good as I remembered it. A lovely, heartbreaking book about friendship and loss.
March 8, 2007
this girl turns into a seal. awesome!
July 26, 2014
For some reason I've always been in love with the myth of the selkie and so when I read this book as a young girl it made a deep impression on me. I cried at the end of it.
November 18, 2010
When I was 10 or so, this was my #1 favorite book in existence. I would love to have it to read again!!
February 27, 2011
An extraordinary book about true friendship and how we only realize what we have only after we lost it . Myths become true and when she discovers the true is too late.
April 9, 2017
One of my most beloved childhood books.
Read
March 27, 2015I read this when I was a child. I remember really liking it and crying at the end.
February 19, 2021
Favorite book as a child
August 10, 2021
Re-read for Leonidas...he liked it!
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews