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Pearl's town is on the brink of economic collapse, and her dad - a chef - wants to move to a larger city where there will be more work opportunities. But Pearl loves living on the sea; she spends her days diving in deep water, exploring for treasure, and (sometimes) cutting class. Desperate to stay in the town she loves, Pearl takes a job illegally collecting abalone shells for some sketchy people to earn enough money to pay rent. She knows exactly where she can find a lot of shells: the restricted ship wreak zone just off the coast. She'll have to break in, but that's no problem for Pearl! However, when she gets there, she finds far more than she expected and accidentally awakens an ancient sea monster that will change everything.

Pearl of the Sea is a fast-paced South African story of adventure and the connection between humans and nature. It uses few words and lots of beautiful, compelling, and cinematic illustrations.

One thing to note: my library's copies are much larger than I had expected - the size of a small textbook, which is not ideal for bringing to school booktalks. Thankfully they are pretty light so I'm sure we can make it work. (Though I am curious why the book was made this size. Perhaps this is the typical size of graphic novels and comics from South Africa? Or perhaps to better accommodate the full-page designs?)