IF YOU WANT TO VISIT A SEA GARDEN

Imagine taking an early morning walk to a sea garden—the intertidal habitats cultivated by First Nations peoples to increase biodiversity and provide sustainable seafood harvesting.

“If you want to visit a sea garden… / …you’ll have to get up really early.” Using gentle, second-person narration, Weisman describes what readers would find if they were lucky enough to visit one of these reefs, which have existed for thousands of years along the Pacific Northwest coast. The sights and sounds of the shore are rendered in poetic detail throughout the text, from the “symphony of clams…exhaling” to the barnacle-encrusted rocks. Most compelling are the descriptions of the human community that has gathered around them: “generations of First Peoples who…have come here to build and care for the sea garden, harvest and clean clams, and share knowledge and stories.” The sea gardens’ significance to First Nations peoples is at the heart of this story, shining a light on Native brilliance and their continued existence. Deft use of shapes, silhouettes, and color in the bold, graphic images emphasizes what a “special place” these reefs truly are. Families who value #ownvoices stories will be glad to learn that the manuscript was vetted by Kwaxsistalla Wathl’thla Clan Chief Adam Dick and illustrated by renowned Indigenous artist Vickers, whose heritage includes T’simshian, Haida, Heiltsuk, and English ancestors. (This book was reviewed digitally with 8.5-by-20.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 27.5% of actual size.)

A lyrical story for nature-loving readers, told with reverence for the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest.