Out in the Bay  Ned Barraud

                                                                                                         

Out in the Bay
Ned Barraud (text & ill)
Scholastic (2026)
Picture book
24 pages, Paperback
ISBN 978 1 77543 977 6

 

There in the bay, beneath waters jade green,
dwell creatures of mystery, shy and unseen.
A seahorse? A crab? Grey dolphins at play?
A whole hidden world lies out in the bay.’

 Out in the Bay is an attractive companion volume to the author-illustrator’s equally fascinating At Home on the Farm (2025) This time the subject is the dramatic area where the sea meets the land – the bays and beaches of New Zealand. Raised in Nelson and now living in Wellington, Ned Barraud knows his bays and their wildlife.

 The handsome double-page colour illustrations don’t show glamorous, idealised seashore scenes. Rather, we see storm-battered beaches, collapsing remnants of old jetties, piles of driftwood, sandy islands being eroded by the sea and even an ageing yacht ‘crusty and rusty and riddled with rot.’

Look closer and we see that the yacht is being used as a roost by terns, its mooring rope is festooned with mussels. The jetty piles are home to starfish and still more mussels. Schools of small fish dart through the seaweed below. There is life everywhere in his pictures: tiny humans in their sailboats, a stingray gliding in the shallows, a crab scuttling for cover and the multitude of wading birds which gather on the shore to dine:

‘Oystercatchers, herons and stilts
Probe for a feed through the mud and the silt.’

 

The illustration of the accumulated flotsam washed up on a rocky shore– ‘treasures to spot if you have a keen eye’ -  includes shells, feathers, driftwood, kina shells and even a half-built hut. It should inspire a generation of young readers to go beachcombing

 

There is a page devoted to the guano production of a colony of spotted shags, which is certain to fascinate young readers.

‘Their crang-a-dang nests cling to the cliff,
but yuk! What a stink! What a foul-smelling whiff!’

 

Barraud has a sharp eye for the distinctive features of the creatures he depicts, such as the shags holding their wings out to dry. My favourite illustration shows fur seals – not the sleek, diving ones – but the lumpy, lolling ones, lying on the rocks, enjoying the sunshine, and waving the occasional flipper.

 

His time spent working in the film industry with Weta Workshops is reflected in Ned Barraud‘s dramatic landscapes and seascapes.  The most awe-inspiring creation is the school of luminous jellyfish in a purple, midnight sea. The author’s words are a perfect accompaniment to his picture:

‘Out in the bay, drifting with grace,
jellyfish float like stars in deep space.,
glowing like lanterns, soft and slow.
they’re carried by currents that ebb and flow.’

 

The dramatic closing pages show Nelson’s Boulder Bank lighthouse standing firm against the black clouds of a rising thunderstorm, while dolphins plunge through the breakers:

‘But, surfing the white caps with joy and with glee,
grey dolphins are dancing, wild and free.’

 

Out in the Bay is a book to enjoy reading. And, doubly, to enjoy looking at.

 

Trevor Agnew

20 July 2026  [Review 3853.]