When I was a kid, my father bought a boat, a Boston Whaler. It wasn’t all that big, but it was enough to take our family of six out on the Pacific Ocean—to Catalina Island, and to some of the smaller and uninhabited islands off the California coast. With flashlights, we explored Channel Island sea caves, listening to the echoing barks of hidden sea lions bouncing off the cavern walls. We snorkeled in the clear waters off Catalina—past schools of fish, manta rays, and dolphins. It was magical. It’s been years since I’ve lived anywhere near the ocean, but I’ve never forgotten the adventures we had, especially the encounters with the captivating creatures of the sea.
The sea teems with enchanting creatures in this heartbreakingly lyrical middle-grade novel: redfish and electric eels and speckled trout, cabbage heads and jellyfish and flounders…and merfolk.
When everything goes wrong for ten-year-old Keeper on the day of a blue moon, she goes searching for her mother, who swam away and disappeared when Keeper was three. She must have been a mermaid, Keeper thinks. Why else would she have left? They say that mermaids gather at the sandbar on nights of a blue moon, and Keeper knows her mother can set things right. So she sets off in a small rowboat, late at night, to find her.
This story is luminous. I love the sense of longing, the sense that the world of the Mer lives cheek by jowl beside the world in which floors must be swept and meals must be cooked and cleaned up after. You have a sense that there’s only a thin and permeable membrane between cold reality and our most heartfelt and fantastical dreams.
How the story plays out, I won’t reveal, but I will say that rumors of a gay merman… turn out to be true!
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Newbery Medal Honoree Kathi Appelt enchants with a tale about mermaids, mermen, and what happens when you believe in fairy tales for too long.
Keeper was born in the ocean, and she believes she is part mermaid. So when she accidentally sets off a series of disasters, she goes out looking for her mother—an unpredictable and uncommonly gorgeous woman who swam away when Keeper was three. Keeper heads right for the ocean, right for the sandbar where mermaids are known to gather on full moon nights. But her boat is too small for the surf—and much too small for the…
One of the things I love about this young adult novel is Billingsley’s courage in giving us a girl protagonist who is crafty, vengeful, and hungry for power. Not exactly your standard heart-of-gold fairytale princess!
And this book was published in 1999—twenty-six years ago, when girl characters in young readers’ fantasy novels were usually—though not always—quite a bit more biddable. But Corinna’s honesty is bracing. She refuses to knuckle under to those with power over her, or to the fierce, dark-dwelling cave Folk in her charge. She won me over!
Still, there’s more to Corinna than meets the eye. Her hair grows two inches a night, her skin is translucent, and she can draw off the anger of the Folk “as a lightning rod draws off lightning." I don’t want to give too much away, but in the end, we find ourselves in a tale of the sea, of hard-won self-knowledge, of transformation, and of selkies.
What a novel: brave, beautifully written, and deep!
She doesn't really know who she is or what she wants... Corinna is a Folk Keeper. Her job is to keep the mysterious Folk who live beneath the ground at bay. But Corinna has a secret that even she doesn't fully comprehend, until she agrees to serve as Folk Keeper at Marblehaugh Park, a wealthy family's seaside manor. There her hidden powers burst into full force, and Corinna's life changes forever...
The Victorian mansion, Evenmere, is the mechanism that runs the universe.
The lamps must be lit, or the stars die. The clocks must be wound, or Time ceases. The Balance between Order and Chaos must be preserved, or Existence crumbles.
Appointed the Steward of Evenmere, Carter Anderson must learn the…
I had never heard of the capaill uisce, the malevolent water-horses of Celtic folklore, before reading The Scorpio Races.
These creatures are magnificent, but also, as I’ve said, malicious. I just think that combination is so interesting!
We love horses; we love magical creatures; but these are something else again—mythical creatures that reflect the complexity of life in this world.
Anyway, Stiefvater makes the most of this rich tradition in a stunningly beautiful young adult novel about love, about courage, about conflicting loyalties, about dreams of glory, about the challenges of survival versus the claims of integrity. And a thrilling race!
This is one of my very favorite water-creature stories. Unforgettable!
A spellbinding novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater.
Some race to win. Others race to survive.It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live. Others die. At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them. Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio…
It takes place on a small, rocky island, but its themes are huge: revenge; desire; love; jealousy; power; bondage, and transformation. It’s a multi-generational tale that traces an infinitesimally slow-bending arc toward compassion, catharsis, and the restoration of order.
There is a witch who can summon beautiful women out of their bodies as seals; there are the seal-women, themselves, and the men who love them; there are the children, part-selkie, part human.
I loved that, though much evil is done, none of the principal characters are purely evil or good. The prose itself is so beautiful, I sometimes had to stop and reread passages; I didn’t want to let them go. Many spells are cast within this story, and the story itself cast a spell on me. I felt larger after having read it. Maybe a bit wiser, too?
Rollrock is an isolated, windswept island; a wild and salty landscape where fishermen and their families must wring a living from the stormy seas. But Rollrock is also a place of eerie magic, and of powerful desire.
Down on the beach, the outcast witch of Rollrock casts her spells, and draws mysterious girls from the sea. These are girls with long, pale limbs and faces of haunting innocence - the most enchantingly beautiful creatures the fishermen of Rollrock have ever seen.
The island is envied, and many a man is lured to Rollrock with the promise of a sea wife.…
Twelve-year-old identical twins Ellie and Kat accidentally trigger their physicist mom’s unfinished time machine, launching themselves into a high-stakes adventure in 1970 Chicago. If they learn how to join forces and keep time travel out of the wrong hands, they might be able find a way home. Ellie’s gymnastics and…
I’ve always wanted to write a book about an underwater town. Sea Change is as close as I’ve come, though there are no actual residential structures beneath the waves in my story.
But in The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea there is a whole, vibrant, beautifully-detailed underwater city, where various kinds of beings carry on with the business of their lives—working; eating; socializing with friends; making love, and making war. Nobody has gills or underwater breathing gear, but you come to this place after jumping into the sea, and schools of brightly colored fish swim through the air, while whales float like clouds in the sky above.
Aside from people, spirits, and sea animals of various kinds, there are the magnificent sea dragons. They have scales of a vibrant, dazzling blue and move freely through the (underwater) air—buoyant, joyous. They have whiskered mouths, and eyes so large and dark our protagonist feels they must hold all the wisdom of the world. These are not the reptilian dragons of Western legends, but the magical dragons of Asian lore.
Deadly storms. An ancient curse. Will her sacrifice save them all?
For generations, deadly storms have ravaged Mina's homeland. Her people believe the Sea God, once their protector, now curse them with death and despair. To appease him, each year a maiden is thrown into the sea, in the hopes that one day the 'true bride' will be chosen and end the suffering.
Many believe Shim Cheong - Mina's brother's beloved - to be the legendary true bride. But on the night Cheong is sacrificed, Mina's brother follows her, even knowing that to interfere is a death sentence. To save…
Sea Change is a young adult science fiction love story about a gill-breathing girl who changes herself so she can be with the “Normal” guy she adores. It’s a riff on The Little Mermaid, only the transformation is done through modern technology rather than magic.
This book doesn’t predict the future, but raises questions. About changing oneself for love. About who is and is not “normal.” About inclusion and exclusion. On another level, it raises questions about the rapid advances in human gene-editing technologies, with which, during the lifetimes of today’s young readers, humans will be transformed in ways we can hardly imagine now.
A witchy paranormal cozy mystery told through the eyes of a fiercely clever (and undeniably fabulous) feline familiar.
I’m Juno. Snow-white fur, sharp-witted, and currently stuck working magical animal control in the enchanted town of Crimson Cove. My witch, Zandra Crypt, and I only came here to find her missing…
A fake date, romance, and a conniving co-worker you'd love to shut down. Fun summer reading!
Liza loves helping people and creating designer shoes that feel as good as they look. Financially overextended and recovering from a divorce, her last-ditch opportunity to pitch her firm for investment falls flat. Then…
