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Narrated by Finty Williams
Liz KesslerUnabridged — 4 hours, 14 minutes
Narrated by Finty Williams
Liz KesslerUnabridged — 4 hours, 14 minutes
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With a sparkling energy and humor, Finty Williams brings to life the new adventures and travails of a likeable half-mermaid tween in Emily Windsnap and the Monster from the Deep by Liz Kessler. This time Emily accidentally rouses a sea monster called a kracken and invites the wrath of Neptune. (May). Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Gr 4-6-Emily is ecstatic. In The Tail of Emily Windsnap (Candlewick, 2004), she learns that she is a mermaid and reunites her human mother with her merman father. Now, the happy family is going to live together on an island smack dab in the center of the Bermuda Triangle. King Neptune himself has designated Allpoints Island as a safe place where humans and merfolk can coexist in peace. Even better, Emily's mermaid buddy Shona is moving to the island as well. Unfortunately, Emily is still feeling a little different as she is the only half-human/half-mermaid hybrid she knows. In an attempt to impress the others, she unwittingly unleashes a monster sleeping at the heart of the island. To put it to rest, she must now face not only her fears but also her old rival from middle school, Mandy Rushton. Constantly shying away from taking responsibility for her actions, Emily opts for the path of least resistance time and again, only stopping the murderous kraken when forced to do so. The book comes across as overly simplistic much of the time and relies too heavily on coincidence and some unbelievably cheery endings. Just the same, mermaid lovers everywhere will undoubtedly enjoy this story. Consider purchase if the first book is popular.-Elizabeth Bird, New York Public Library Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
When Emily Windsnap and her parents arrive at their new home in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle, she hopes she can fit in with the mermaids there better than she did with her classmates at Brightport High. Half-human, half-mermaid herself, she wants to make an impression on her new friends, but instead awakens a deadly kraken, angers King Neptune and endangers them all. Neptune hopes to put the kraken back to work sinking human ships; his first target carries Emily's long-time enemy, Mandy Rushton. Occasionally, Mandy interrupts Emily's story; the change of narrator is indicated by a new typeface, and a jarring shift to present tense. Neither Emily nor Mandy are developed enough to account for their change of heart at the end, but the action moves briskly, with a satisfying amount of underwater description and much attention to varied tail styles. The imaginative premise will intrigue readers and the suspense will be enough to keep them reading to the happy ending and perhaps send them back to Emily's first story, The Tail of Emily Windsnap (2004). (Fiction. 9-12)
The imaginative premise will intrigue readers and the suspense will be enough to keep them reading to the happy ending and perhaps send them back to Emily’s first story.
—Kirkus Reviews
High-action adventure, a plucky protagonist, and whimsical illustrations enliven this sea fantasy.
—Booklist
Interesting, suspenseful fantasy.
—New Mexico Kids!
No sooner does Emily Windsnap arrive with her newly reunited parents at an ocean abode, then she is off to explore with her mermaid acquaintances. The lure of undersea caverns and forbidden seas is strong, as well as the desire to establish strong friendships. It doesn't take long for Emily's curiosity to upset the age-old balance of King Neptune's realm. Character differentiation is key in Kessler's novel as chapters are alternately told from different points of view. For Emily, Williams exudes freshness and curiosity; for her nemesis, Mandy, Williams deprecates and whines. The urgency of calming the Kraken comes through in pacing and elongated narration. A.R. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine
| BN ID: | 2940171873615 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Penguin Random House |
| Publication date: | 04/11/2006 |
| Series: | Emily Windsnap Series , #2 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
| Age Range: | 8 - 12 Years |
Close your eyes.
Think of the most beautiful place you can imagine.
Are you seeing golden beaches? Gorgeous clear blue sea? Perfect sky? Keep your eyes closed.
Now multiply that by about a hundred, and you’re halfway to picturing what my new home is like. The softest, whitest sand, palm trees that reach lazily out from the beaches, tall rocky arches cusping the bays, sea that sparkles like crystals in the sunlight. All thanks to Neptune, the ruler of the ocean.
He sent me here with my mom and dad to start a new life. Somewhere we could live together. Somewhere our secret would be safe.
One of Neptune’s guards, Archieval, accompanied us here. He’s a merman. He swam beside our little sailboat, King, all the way, swishing his long black hair behind him and occasionally ducking under, flicking his tail in the air, silver and sharp, like a dagger.
We edged slowly into a horseshoe-shaped bay filled with shiny turquoise water. Soft foamy waves gently stroked the white sand. A few boats were dotted about in the bay, half-sunken, silently sloping. Some were modern yachts, others great wooden crafts that looked like ancient pirate ships.
A tall rocky arch marked the end of the bay. Through it, the sand and sea continued around a corner. I caught my breath as I stood and stared.
“Shake a tail, someone,” Archieval called up. “I could use some help here.”
I leaned across to help him pull the boat alongside a wooden jetty as Dad swam around to the back and tied the ropes to a buoy. Mom was still inside with Millie. That’s her friend from Brightport. Millie used to read fortunes on the pier. She did a tarot reading for Archieval before we left, and he liked it so much, he invited her to come with us. They had to check with Neptune first, but Archieval is one of Neptune’s top guards, so he’s pretty much allowed to do as he likes.
Then Millie said she’d have to let the cards decide, so she set the pack out in a star shape and sat looking at it in silence for about ten minutes, nodding slowly.
“Well, it’s obvious what I have to do. You’ll never catch me ignoring a call from the ten of cups,” she said enigmatically before throwing her black cape over her shoulder and going home to pack her things. Millie says everything enigmatically. I’ve learned to just nod and look as though I know what she’s talking about.
Archieval swam around to the side of the boat. “This is it, then,” he said. “North Bay, Allpoints Island.”
“Why’s it called Allpoints Island?” I asked.
“It’s right in the center of the Triangle.” He stretched out an arm as he spun slowly around in a circle. “Where the three points meet.”
The Bermuda Triangle. I shivered. He’d told us about it on the way here, about the boats and planes that had mysteriously disappeared inside it. An ocean liner had been found totally intact but utterly deserted. Twenty tables were set out for dinner. Another ship was found with skeletons on the decks, its sails ripped to shreds all around them. Others had vanished without a trace, often after frantic mayday calls from pilots and fishermen who were never seen again.
I didn’t know whether to believe the stories at first, but something had happened out at sea. We’d been sailing along normally, the swells rising and falling, the boat gently making its way through the peaks and troughs. Then it changed. The water went all glassy. The engine cut out; everything died. Even my watch stopped working. It felt as if the sea had frozen, almost as if time itself had frozen.
Then Archieval yanked his long hair into a ponytail with some string and disappeared under the water. A few minutes later, we got moving again, gliding silently across the glassy sea.
“That was it,” he called up. “Bermuda Triangle. That’s what’ll protect you from the outside world now. No one knows how to get through it except for a few chosen merfolk.” He threw a rope onto the deck. “Well, a few chosen merfolk and . . . no, I’d better not tell you about that.”
“What? Tell me.”
Archie beckoned me closer. “I shouldn’t really tell you this,” he said, “but there’s a raging current down there. Not any normal kind of current either, oh no. This one’s linked to something that lies deep down in the sea, even below your island.”
“What? What is it?”
“What is it? It’s the biggest, scariest, most powerful —”
“I hope you’re not filling my daughter’s head with any more of your lurid tales, Archie!” Dad said, suddenly turning up beside Archie. “She has enough nightmares as it is.”
I’d told Dad all about my nightmares on the way here, the ones I used to have in Brightport: swimming around in a fish tank surrounded by my old classmates, all shouting “Freak! Freak!” at me, or being chased by a scientist with a big net.
How many more nightmares was I going to have? Would I get to leave them behind? Would I ever stop feeling like the odd one out?
Archie lowered his voice. “Just be careful,” he said. “That glassy plane marks out the Triangle, but it’s only like that on the surface. It’s a huge well below, leading down to the deepest depths of the ocean. And you don’t want to go disappearing down a hole like that.”
I rubbed the goose bumps crawling up my arms.
We’d sailed on calmly after that, slipping through water that grew clearer and lighter every moment, melting from deep navy to a soft baby blue. I tried to push Archie’s words to the back of my mind.
Gradually, the island came into view. It was quite small, perhaps only a few miles across: a tall cliV at one end, a couple of lower peaks at the other, and a low, flat stretch in between. As we drew closer, I could see that the coastline was made up of long white bays fringed with tall palm trees and clusters of rocks and arches. It looked like a postcard. I’d always thought those pictures must be made up somehow and that when you got there, you’d just find a clump of high-rise apartments next to a building site.
But it was real. And it was my new home.
