The Cuddly Seal

Paula Harrison's The Cuddly Seal is a seaside rescue story for 6 year olds about a princess and her best friend who find a baby seal all alone on the rocks.

What happens

Bea and her best friend Keira are spending a sunny day at the beach, swimming and pretending to be mermaids. Round the headland at Silver Rock Bay they spot a white blob on the rocks. Is it someone's picnic bag? No. It moved!

It's a seal pup with fur as fluffy as a cloud and huge black eyes. But where's his mum? Seals usually stay together, so why is this one on his own?

Bea's dad has been very clear. No bringing home anything furry. But the next day, on a royal boat trip to an island full of seals, Bea starts to wonder if her pup got separated from his family the same way.

So she and Keira take charge. They buy him tuna, cod AND sardines with Bea's pocket money (he isn't interested in any of it). They chase off some big, mean-looking gulls. They name him Snowy and tuck him safely into a cave.

Then a storm blows in, and Natasha mentions that those caves flood every time.

This is a really warm friendship story. Bea and Keira make a brilliant team, and Keira is just as brave as Bea when it counts. Little readers will love how much the two girls care, and there's a lovely moment when they buy fish without having the faintest idea how much a seal eats.

A couple of things to be aware of. Bea sneaks out of the palace alone at five in the morning, in the dark, as the storm arrives. Later the girls head out on rough water with an old fisherman, without telling the king. It's all very exciting, but you might want a quick chat about why real children should always tell a grown-up first! And Snowy gets weaker for a while, which a soft-hearted reader might find worrying.

This edition uses American words and spelling (mom, harbor, flashlight, Band-Aids), so your reader might spot a few differences.

What to read next

If they fall for Bea and Keira, The Runaway Rabbit has the two friends finding a tame golden bunny hiding under a bush on the busiest street in town, on the morning of Keira's very first palace sleepover.