Note from the author: Storytime is a series of original short stories written by me for young children and their families to read together, all about wild animals and their adventures. Enjoy! -Katie
Summer was a squishy, spotty, silky-soft harbor seal who lived in San Diego. She was born on the beach in a secret cove almost one year ago and was so excited to become a big sister in just a couple of months when her mom would give birth to her baby brother on the same beach where she was born.
While swimming one day, enjoying the sunshine and twirling in the seaweed, Summer spotted a funny looking leaf floating through the air toward her. It landed quietly on the water’s surface, and Summer realized it wasn’t a leaf at all - it was a piece of paper advertising that their secret cove wasn’t a secret anymore.
“SAN DIEGO’S BEST SEASIDE AMUSEMENT PARK, COMING SOON TO THE COVE! CONSTRUCTION STARTS TODAY!” the paper read.
There would be a rollercoaster, a carousel, a ferris wheel, and tons and tons of people at the cove. How would Summer’s mom keep her baby brother safe when she gave birth if they didn’t have their secret cove anymore?
Summer knew she had to do something to save the cove, not only so her baby brother could be born safely, but so all of the seals could continue to use the cove as their home. So she made a plan.
If there was one thing Summer was best at, it was collecting slimy, sleek strands of seaweed from the kelp forest below and playing with them at the surface. She would spend hours creating floating hoops and hurdles for her friends to swim through in their own obstacle courses.
When she realized she needed a way to tell the humans not to build their amusement park in the seals’ cove, she thought of the seaweed. She knew she could get their attention with the long, green strands if she arranged them the right way.
She raced around her seal neighborhood, telling everyone that she was going to save the cove using seaweed, and there was no time to explain the details now.
Summer pulled as much seaweed as she could from the kelp forest and piled it onto the beach where the waves were crashing. One by one, she nudged each strand into place, just like she was making an obstacle course again. Instead of hoops, she spelled out a message to the humans in large, leafy letters:
“SAVE THE COVE FOR THE SEALS,” her message read.
As she pushed the final letter into place with her nose, she saw humans wearing construction outfits approaching the cove. She bravely barked to get their attention, and they all stopped to read her message.
One human told the large trucks to stop driving up to the cove, and the others set their tools down. Another human waved away the crew from getting any closer to the beach.
Summer bounced with joy as the construction was halted for another day, and turned back toward the sea to share her success with her mom and friends.
Behind her, she saw that her entire seal community, including her mom, friends, aunts, uncles, cousins, and neighbors had all stood behind her in a line at the shore as she defended their cove. Every single one of them had believed in her message and had joined in to save their home, together.
The next day, Summer watched as another paper floated down to her in the shallow waves at the cove’s edge.
“AMUSEMENT PARK MOVES INLAND - COVE NOW A PROTECTED WILDLIFE HABITAT! VISIT BOTH THIS SUMMER!” the paper read.
Summer smiled to herself before swimming off to share the news with her seal community. The cove was safe after all.