Our Ocean Family: A California Indian Sea Animals Book

Our Ocean Family: A California Indian Sea Animals Book
Board Book, 6 x 6, 28pages | Pub Date: July 7, 2026
ISBN: 9781597147033.

By Eric Wilder , Muriel Ammon , Terria Smith

A board book that introduces babies and toddlers to California sea animals, how they live together, and their connections with Native cultures.

Meet the fascinating creatures who live along the Pacific Coast—salmon and seals, pelicans and plovers, turtles and whales galore. Our Ocean Family celebrates the relationships that California’s sea animals have with each other and with this land’s first peoples, for whom these delightful creatures have always been family. Crabs and shrimp play hide-and-seek, otters eat urchins and give abalone room to grow, and mollusks keep ocean water happy and healthy. Richly detailed full-color illustrations by Eric Wilder immerse little readers in sea life and include homages to the Native tribes who call these coastlands home. Learn the names for “ocean” in California tribal languages and uncover the wonders that await at land’s end. Adorable and fun, Our Ocean Family rejoices in the ways that people and sea animals are all related.

About the Authors

Eric Wilder

Eric Wilder

Eric Wilder is a member of the Kashaya Band of Pomo Indians of the Stewarts Point Rancheria. He is a freelance artist with professional experience in graphic design and animation. Wilder was trained early in his life as a traditional singer and storyteller by grandparents and has served as chairman for his tribe.

Muriel Ammon

Muriel Ammon

Muriel Ammon is a California Native from the Tsnungwe village Łe:lding along the Trinity River. Ammon has written for News from Native California magazine and was the 2024–25 Graton Heyday Berkeley Roundhouse Writing Intern.

Terria Smith

Terria Smith

Terria Smith is a tribal member of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians and a proud original Californian. She is the editor of News from Native California magazine and director of the Berkeley Roundhouse, Heyday’s California Indian publishing program. Smith is also the editor of the 2023 anthology Know We Are Here: Voices of Native California Resistance. She received her undergraduate degree at Cal Poly Humboldt (formerly Humboldt State University) and earned her master’s degree at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She lives on her ancestral homelands in the Coachella Valley with her puppy Havana.

Preview
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