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Summary
Summary
An enchanting tale with a fabulous monster, engaging characters, plenty of mermaid magic, and a page-turning story, Kessler's new middle-grade fantasy has all the charm and warmth of its predecessor, The Tail of Emily Windsnap.
Author Notes
LIZ KESSLER's first book, THE TAIL OF EMILY WINDSNAP, was published in ten countries. Of EMILY WINDSNAP AND THE MONSTER FROM THE DEEP, she says, "I always knew that Emily's story wasn't finished at the end of the first book. I really wanted to explore the idea of an island where humans and merfolk lived together in peace. I also knew that there was a detail I was missing. Then I happened to see an in-flight video about a theme park with a ride called the Kraken, and I instantly knew that this creature was the missing ingredient." Liz Kessler lives on a canal boat in the countryside just outside Manchester, England, where she is working on her third book, EMILY WINDSNAP AND THE CASTLE IN THE MIST.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
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). (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Gr. 4-7. The daughter of a woman and a merman, Emily is a girl on land and a mermaid in the water. Now the family lives on Allpoints Island, safe from the curious inquiries of humans and accepted by the merpeople community. In this sequel to The Tail of Emily Windsnap0 (2004) , 0 our heroine's insatiable curiosity lands her in hot water. While investigating a mysterious lagoon smack in the middle of the ocean, Emily inadvertently rouses the dreaded monster Kracken. A vengeful Neptune, king of the ocean realm, visits the merpeople to express outrage at this turn of events: the Kracken was not supposed to awaken for another eight years, and now destruction threatens the island colony. Emily needs to fess up to her deed and take on the responsibility of calming the creature, a task rife with complications. High-action adventure, a plucky protagonist, and whimsical illustrations enliven this sea fantasy, which will be most thoroughly appreciated by series followers. --Anne O'Malley Copyright 2006 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-6-This is Liz Kessler's sequel (Candlewick, 2006) to The Tail of Emily Windsnap (Candlewick, 2004; Listening Library, 2004), in which a 12-year-old girl discovers she is part mermaid and reunites her human mother and merman father. Emily's happily reunited family moves to an idyllic island located in the Bermuda Triangle where humans and merpeople peacefully coexist. Emily and her mermaid friend Shona become involved in a dangerous adventure. Because of her past hardships in junior high school, Emily wants desperately to fit in with her new peers. While swimming with their friends, Emily and Shona come across a forbidden cave and, trying to prove that they are cool and brave, the girls enter it and unintentionally awaken the kraken, a huge and terrifying monster with tentacles and tusks. A careful balance between the island and the kraken is disrupted and only Emily can put things right. Chapters from Emily's narration alternate with those of a bully from her previous school, Mandy, who becomes involved in the adventure when her vacation on a cruise ship is interrupted by the kraken. The threesome eventually restored peace to the Triangle, and Emily is able to face her personal demons. Narrator Finty Williams brings to life all the charm and imagination of Kessler's tale, expertly alternating character voices. This engaging tale will be a hit with middle schoolers who enjoy fantasy and adventure stories with female characters.-April Mazza, Wayland Public Library, MA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
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) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Excerpts
Excerpts
We swam side by side to begin with. Below us, occasional shoals of parrotfish and bright red snappers swept across the sandy bed. When the channel narrowed, I swam ahead, slinking along the silent passageway. The ground soon became uncluttered: clear golden sand beneath us, the sun shining down, almost directly above our heads. Two silhouetted mermaid figures gliding along below the surface, our shadows came and went, appearing briefly before suddenly growing distorted with the splash of a tail breaking the water's still surface. We came to the curtain of reeds draped down the channel's walls and the algae-coated wooden plaques. That's when the feeling started inside me. I didn't know what it was. A quivery kind of sensation jiggling around in my stomach. Nervous. Waiting for something - and a feeling that there was something waiting for me, too. Trying not to let Shona see my quivering hands, I parted the curtain and looked through the hole in the wall. The water sparkled and fanned out into a wide lagoon. Ferns hung down over cracks and gaps in the walls. A white tropical bird flew into a hole behind me, its long tail disappearing into the rock. Nothing else moved. Shona stared. I turned to her. "Ready?" My voice shook. She broke her gaze to look at me. "Let's just get this over with." I glanced around to check that no one had followed us, then I squeezed through the gap and swam into the lagoon. The sun burned down, heating my neck and dancing on the water. Its light rippled below us in wavy lines across the sea floor. As we slid across the stillness, the water grew colder and murkier. When the lagoon narrowed back into a channel, I couldn't see my reflection swimming along below me anymore. The walls lining our trail had lost their hardness. They were like chalk. I stopped and scraped my finger down the side. I made myself focus on the walls, almost flicking a switch to turn off the nagging wordless worry in my mind. Rock crumbled in my hand. The channel walls stretched upward, cold and gray and deserted. "Emily!" Shona was pointing at something ahead. An engraving on the wall: a perfect circle with a fountain spiraling out from the center. It looked like a pinwheel, full of energy, almost as tall as us. I had this weird feeling I knew the picture, recognized it. Had I seen it in a book? Dreamed about it? What was it? "Look at this!" Shona had swum ahead while I stared at the engraving. I joined her in front of some ferns loosely covering a hole in the rock. The hole disappeared below the surface. We dived down. Under the water, it was just big enough to swim into. "Cool!" I grinned at her. A secret tunnel reaching into the rock! "Shona, we have to see what's in there." _______ EMILY WINDSNAP AND THE MONSTER FROM THE DEEP by Liz Kessler. Copyright (c) 2006 by Liz Kessler. Published by Candlewick Press, Inc., Cambridge, MA. Excerpted from Emily Windsnap and the Monster from the Deep by Liz Kessler All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
