A story about comparing oneself to others, feeling inferior and anxious about failure, but also about discovering one’s uniqueness, learning to accept and love oneself. Best of all, a story about a little seahorse that changes colours (orange to green to blue to pink) to blend in with the surroundings and confuse predators and who is unbeatable at hide-and-seek!!! That’s what captivates little gosling, above all :))). And something new I learned myself, as I knew very little about seahorses 😛

Sully feels anxious and intimidated to compete against his colleagues in the sea school contest. He’s not particularly good in any of the disciplines in the competition (that is being polite). He tries to avoid participating, but Miss Trout encourages everyone to just try their best and he feels obliged to do so, all the while fearing and knowing he’ll come last. He wishes he could have one of the talents his colleagues possess.. Until he amazes everyone with his ability to change colour and become invisible in the sea, in face of danger from being caught by a diver. He realizes, then, how special he is :). 

This is a cute, lovely rhymed story, populated with sea creatures, full of emotion, with brightly coloured illustrations. Sully is relatable and one can’t help wanting to hug and comfort him. For some reason, little gosling is hooked on Miss Trout, the teacher. He gets excited at every start of a race “On your marks, ready, get set… go!!!” and he’s fascinated by the shadow of the boat underwater. He calls it “the book with the shadow” On one of our readings, I told him the words in the book : “you are amazing” and he said “no, I am not amazing, I am a baby!” :))) 

Little gosling has his own little pink seahorse buddy, which he carefully chose himself after our visit summer 2020 to Sea Life Blankenberge, where we saw some less glamorously coloured seahorses.