Pages: 301
Publishers: Scholastic Inc.
Published: September 1, 2009
Hannah is not like other girls in the turn-of-the-century
Boston orphanage where she grew up. Instead of seasickness, she gets land
sickness. She leaves a ring of salt in the tub when she bathes, and sometimes
she sees a faint tracing of scales on her feet. It's freakish, horrifying . . .
and deeply thrilling.
Hannah feels a change coming. But she is not
the only one who senses it. A young painter recognizes something in Hannah--a
connection with the sea that recalls a secret from his own past. A choice lies
ahead, and Hannah must discover if she is a creature of the land--or of the sea.
Review:
Kathryn Lasky has
created her own little world into the world of mermaids. This story follows a young girl name
Hannah, who leaves the orphanage to work at the Hawleys household. There she works as a scullery maid and
makes friends with Henrietta ‘Ettie’ Hawley, while trying to hide what she is.
Hannah also meets
a young painter named Stannish Whitman Wheeler, who complicates things for
her. She knows that he is
different like her, but does not know why she hides it. Then there’s the witch of the family and
her monster cat. Lila Hawley has
her eyes on the painter, but his attention is on Hannah, so this causes her to
try and harm Hannah on several occasions.
This book was good
but had me asking many questions towards the end. It ended unrepentantly with the storm and the mermaid’s tail. It could have showed some history on
how Hannah was found by the people of the orphanage. Even though it provided a look onto how people of the 1900s
lived.
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