Emerson the Elephant Seal

Emerson the Elephant Seal by Ginger Ngo is a story about finding home in a new place.

Emerson the elephant seal is just that, an elephant seal. Emerson’s place is in the cold ocean but they have other plans. They settle in the city and get very used to delicious salmon sandwiches until community safety comes to tell them they need to go back to the ocean. However, elephant seals never forget and Emerson soon finds their way back to the big city.

Ginger Ngo uses the story of an elephant seal to share the sights and sounds of Victoria, British Columbia with readers as well as tell her own immigration story. Through her lyrical text with wonderful asides, Ginger takes readers on a tour of Victoria through the illustrations as well as a journey into what it is like to make a huge move across the ocean and some of the obstacles that one can face.

There is a beautiful author’s note at the end of the story where Ginger explains her journey from the Philippines to Canada and back and forth while she worked so hard to secure her place in Canada and access to the delicious salmon sandwiches she had grown to love.

I love how this story is lively and humorous with rhyming text. The book is short in length so it really makes wonderful to share with younger readers as well as older readers. I can see this story being used in preschool classrooms as a fun read aloud but again in older, middle grade classrooms to discuss things like immigration and policy and what people must endure at times to find home.

The illustrations are colourful and joyful reflecting Ginger Ngo’s obvious love for her city of Victoria and her country of Canada. There is so much to see throughout the story that readers will be able to discover something new each time they open the book for a reading.