The Tail of Emily Windsnap (Emily Windsnap)

"Pre-teen girls will likely bite at this novel's tempting bait, offered in the opening lines: 'Can you keep a secret? Everybody has secrets, of course, but mine's different.' Emily Windsnap, who narrates, is half-mermaid, as she discovers, inconveniently, in her seventh-grade swim class. Despite never having had a lesson, she takes to the water like, well, a fish. Before Emily's first kick turn she feels her legs melding into a tail. She hops out of the water before she can be branded a freak, but she's hooked. At night, she sneaks from the boat where she lives with her mother to explore the undersea world, and unravel the mystery of her genetics — which involves her long-missing, never-discussed father. Newcomer Kessler anchors her fantasy in the nitty-gritty of adolescence: Emily bests a bully who comes close to guessing her secret, and she finds a best friend in Shona, a mermaid she meets during her nightly swims. Coincidences drive the plot — Shona has recently studied illegal mermaid-human marriages in school; a creepy lightkeeper drops a key that unlocks a treasure chest containing a file spelling out the entire backstory. The jewel-toned jacket art and ink-wash illustrations sprinkled throughout add girlish charm to an imaginative story. Ages 8-12." Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc.)

This story about a girl who learns she is half mermaid lures readers into a glorious undersea world--an enchanting fantasy about family secrets, loyal friendship, and the power of love. .

Liz Kessler lives on a canal boat in rural Cheshire, England, and has worked as a teacher, journalist, and editorial consultant. She says she first knew she wanted to become a writer at the age of nine, when she had a poem published in a local newspaper. THE TAIL OF EMILY WINDSNAP, her first childrens book, grew out of a poem she wrote about a mermaid.