Out in the bay, to gentle waves,
Little horses bend and sway
Holding on with spiral tails
To grassy wisps and coral rails.
We are out in the bay, under the water, where the seahorses of all colours live among their coral and seaweed home. They curl their tails, holding on to seaweed and stretching out to gulp some food as quick as a flick.
But the wind has picked up and the waves are growing bigger. A storm is coming. Our seahorses are swept up and along as the big waves break the coral apart and wash it away. They hold on tight as the waves are splashing and crashing all around.
Calm has now finally come but the storm has swept away their coral home.
When all seems lost, with their eyes swivelling around, they spot something … a new home. One built to last!
Little Horses highlights what humans can do to help the environment as they work to rebuild our seahorse’s home, providing a scaffold for the coral and weed to regrow.
This book’s inspiration comes from the story of a seahorse hotel that was built by scientist David Harasti, to help provide a home for the White’s seahorse, an endangered species once endemic to Port Stephens on the NSW north coast and to Sydney Harbour.
Since David started building the hotels the seahorses have come back from the brink of extinction and these hotels have been built all over the world for marine life.
This is just a lovely book. The rhyming story and illustrations are very engaging and we learn so much while reading. At the back of the book we discover a bunch of fascinating facts including that the female seahorse lays her eggs in the male’s pouch, where he fertilises them and cares for them, keeping them safe.
Reviewed by Emily Ross
Age Guide 3+
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Deb Kelly is a multi award winning, internationally published author of picture books, junior fiction and middle grade. The Thing about Oliver was shortlisted in the younger readers category of the Children’s Book Council of Australia awards, shortlisted for Speech Pathology Australia’s Book of the Year and won the Australian Association of Family Therapists book of the year award in the younger readers category. Her picture book Me and You won Speech Pathology Australia’s Book of the Year (3-5 year olds) in 2017.
ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR
Jenni Goodman is a children’s book illustrator who lives in a beautiful sea-side town in New South Wales, Australia. Jenni uses watercolour paints and pencils, both coloured and graphite, as well as digital media. She loves capturing the beauty of nature and expressive characters in her illustrations. She is the illustrator of the 2018 Storm Boy Board Books, and feels honoured to help champion koala conservation through the 2020 release of Have You Seen A Tree For Me? Her picture book Snuffy has been Shortlisted for the 2022 Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year.
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