This new book by Holling Clancy Holling does for the sea what Paddle-to-the-Sea did for the Great Lakes region and Tree in the Trail for the Southwest. Seabird is an ivory gull, carved by Ezra Brown, youngest hand on an oldtime whaling vessel. Through Seabird's eyes, scenes of beauty, danger, and excitement from every ocean and from every age of American adventure are revealed.

With Ezra Brown, Seabird watched the harpooning of great whales. Later he sailed with Captain Ezra in a lofty clipper ship to the South Seas and the Orient. With Ezra's son and then with his grandson, Seabird rode the waves, as the clippers outsailed the old whalers and stream finally drove sailing craft from the sea. In the final pages, aircraft comes into its own, and the book leads on into aviation and the future.

Though the Browns' ships changed, there remained the courage and inventiveness of these men of the sea. Four generations of this family helped develop new triumphs in navigation, for over them hovered the luck of the ivory Seabird.

The thrilling adventures of the boys who carried Seabird with them on their ocean and air voyages are matched by the strikingly beautiful illustrations we have come to expect from the author-artist, Holling C. Holling.

From the dust jacket