Dashka Slater - The Sea Serpent and Me

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The Sea Serpent and Me

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For Milo, who started out little
and insisted on growing D.S. For my sister, Louise, who is my best friend,
and for my beautiful niece Natalie C.C. Text copyright 2008 by Dashka Slater
Illustrations copyright 2008 by Catia Chien All rights reserved. For information about permission to reproduce
selections from this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin
Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003. www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com The text of this book is set in Egyptienne.
The illustrations are acrylic and charcoal pencil. cm.
Summary: One day a small sea serpent falls from the faucet into the
tub as a child is about to take a bath, and as the days go by and the serpent
grows, they both realize that he needs to go back to the sea where
he belongs.
ISBN-13: 978-0-618-72394-2 (hardcover)
ISBN-10: 0-618-72394-3 (hardcover)
[1. cm.
Summary: One day a small sea serpent falls from the faucet into the
tub as a child is about to take a bath, and as the days go by and the serpent
grows, they both realize that he needs to go back to the sea where
he belongs.
ISBN-13: 978-0-618-72394-2 (hardcover)
ISBN-10: 0-618-72394-3 (hardcover)
[1.

Sea monstersFiction. 2. GrowthFiction.] I. Chien, Catia, ill. II.
Title.
PZ7.S62897Se 2008
[E]dc22 2007015577 Printed in the U.S.A.
WOZ 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 The Sea Serpent and MeBy
DASHKA SLATERIllustrated by
CATIA CHIEN HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
BOSTON On Tuesday, as I was about to climb into the
bath, a sea serpent dropped out of the faucet
and into the tub. In the bath, we played together.
I made the soap dish be a Viking ship,
and he knocked it over with his tail.
Then we made waves and splashed
each other until water covered the floor. When it was time to get out, I scooped him up
and put him in the fish tank next to my bed. "How did you get here?" I asked him that night.
"Don't sea serpents belong in the sea?" He told me a tornado
had lifted him
into the clouds one day. The clouds drifted over green jungles and silvery cities and then rained him down into a lake,
where a pipe sucked him up
and whooshed him along
and splashed him down into my tub. "Do you miss the sea?" I asked him.
"Of course I do. "Do you miss the sea?" I asked him.
"Of course I do.

I belong there."
"Then I'll take you back," I said. But it was rainy on Wednesday,
too rainy for the beach.
My sea serpent was sulky. "Sea serpents belong in the sea," he said.
"We'll try again tomorrow," I promised.
"But for today, the house can be the beach." Later, we went swimming in the bathtub,
but it suddenly felt crowded.
"I think you're growing," I said.
He smiled. "Of course I am," he said.
"Once I was as small as a drop of rain.
Soon I'll be as big as a wave." That night as I lay in bed he sang
me a song about the deep blue sea, where manta rays swim like dancing blankets and there are crabs with antlers and fish shaped like guitars.

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