The Tail of Emily Windsnap - Brossura

Kessler, Liz

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0763628115 ISBN 13: 9780763628116

Casa editrice: Candlewick Pr, 2006

Riassunto

Having never been allowed to go in the water, Emily is finally given permission by her mother to take swimming lessons and soon discovers an incredible undersea world of mermaids, an underwater school, and a special teacher that help her discover things about her family that have been kept secret for so long. Reprint. 35,000 first printing.

Su questo libro

L'autore:

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 children’s book, grew out of a poem she wrote about a mermaid.

Estratto. © Riproduzione autorizzata. Diritti riservati.:

As I swam around the rocks at the end of the bay, the water became clearer and softer. It was like switching from grainy black-and-white film into color. The fat gray fish were replaced by stripy yellow-and-blue ones with floppy silver tails, long thin green ones with spiky antennae and angry mouths, orange ones with spotted black fins—-all darting purposefully around me.

Every now and then, I swam across a shallow sandy stretch. Wispy little sticklike creatures as thin as paper wriggled along beneath me, almost see-through against the sand. Then the water would suddenly get colder and deeper as I went over a rocky part. I swished myself across these carefully. They were covered in prickly black sea urchins, and I wouldn't be thrilled to get one of those stuck on my tail.

Soon the water got warmer again as I came to another shallow part. I was getting tired. I came up for fresh air and realized I was miles from home; farther away than I'd ever been on my own. I tried to flick myself along, but my tail flapped lazily and started to ache. Eventually, I made it to a big, smooth rock with a low shelf. I pulled myself out of the water, my tail resting on some pebbles in the sea. A minute later, it went numb. I wiggled my toes and shivered as I watched my legs come back. That part was still really creepy!

Sitting back against a larger rock, I caught my breath. Then I heard something. Like singing, but without words. The wet rocks shimmered in the moonlight, but there was no one around. Had I imagined it? The water lapped against the pebbles, making them jangle as it sucked its breath away from the shore. There it was again—-the singing.

Where was it coming from? I clambered up a jagged rock and looked down the other side. That's when I saw her. I rubbed my eyes. Surely it couldn't be . . . but it was! It was a mermaid! A real one!

The kind you read about in kids' stories. Long blond hair all the way down her back, which she was brushing while she sang. She was perched on the edge of a rock, shuffling a bit as though she were trying to get comfortable. Her tail was longer and thinner than mine. Silvery green and shimmering in the moonlight, it flapped against the rock as she sang.

She kept singing the same song. When she got to the end, she started again. A couple of times, she was in the middle of a really high part when she stopped and hit her tail with the brush. "Come on, Shona," she said sharply. "Get it right!"

I stared for ages, opening and closing my mouth like a fish. I wanted to talk to her. But what exactly do you say to a singing mermaid perched on a rock in the middle of the night? Funnily enough, I've never had that come up before.

In the end, I coughed gently and she looked up immediately.

"Oh!" she said. She gaped open-mouthed at my legs for a second. And then, with a twist and a splash, she was gone.

______

THE TAIL OF EMILY WINDSNAP by Liz Kessler, illustrated by Sarah Gibb. Text copyright (c) 2006 by Liz Kessler. Published by Candlewick Press, Inc., Cambridge, MA.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Candlewick Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0763628115
• ISBN 13: 9780763628116
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 208
• Disegnatore: Gibb Sarah