Annie Lumsden, the girl from the sea /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A solitary girl with a kinship for the sea makes a wondrous discovery in a tale of identity and belonging from master storyteller David Almond.

Annie Lumsden has hair that drifts like seaweed, eyes that shine like rock pools, and thoughts that dart and dance like minnows. She lives with her artist mother by the sea, where she feels utterly at home, and has long felt apart from the other girls at school. Words and numbers on the page don't make sense to her, and strange maladies have been springing up that the doctors can't explain. Annie's mother says that all things can be turned into tales, and often she tells her daughter stories about the rocks she paints like faces, or the smoke that wafts from chimneys, or who Annie's dad is. But one day Annie asks her mother for a different tale, something with better truth in it--and on that same day a stranger in town, drawn to the sight of a girl who seems akin to the sea, helps Annie understand how special she is. Featuring Beatrice Alemagna's expressive illustrations, this enchanting coming-of-age tale by the award-winning David Almond borrows from lore and flirts at the edges of mystery.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Annie Lumsden and her sea shanty--singing mother, who "finds tales everywhere," live in a modest white house "above the jetsam line," from which parts of the village of Stupor can be glimpsed. The 13-year-old, a white only child with learning difficulties and an innate love of the ocean, describes herself poetically, with language borrowed from the sea ("I have eyes that shine like rock pools. My ears are like scallop shells") and occasionally suffers from "falls," seizure-like episodes in which she goes "far away beneath the sea." One day, Annie asks her mother to tell a new origin story for her, "something that works out the puzzle of me." The resulting tale involves the woman's meeting a mysterious man from the sea with fins and webbed feet, nine months before Annie herself is born; later that day, a traveler snaps a picture of Annie that seems to reveal the truth behind her otherworldliness. Almond's (Joe Quinn's Poltergeist) sea-swept story, enhanced by Alemagna's (Things That Go Away) eloquent, softly hued watercolor and colored-pencil illustrations, melds memorable turns of phrase with an appreciation for the unexpected: "Sometimes the best way to understand how to be human is to understand our strangeness." Ages 7--10. (May)

Kirkus Book Review

Rather like the seashell her mother picks up that is "as ordinary as any seashell, as beautiful as any seashell," the precious mystery that is Annie Lumsden is not apparent to all. Thirteen-year-old Annie lives with her mum in a small house beside the sea in a beautiful location in the northeast of England. Classmates ridiculed her difficulties at school, and now she suffers inexplicable seizures. Annie and her single mother, who sings sea shanties in the pub and sells handcrafted art made of shells and rocks, glory in the spinning of tales and in connections between their beloved home and far-flung times and places. One day, Annie asks Mum to explain how she came to be; the ensuing tale weaves together the mysteries of the watery world that Annie, whose hair "drifts like seaweed" when she swims and whose "thoughts dart and dance inside like little minnows in the shallows," loves so dearly. It involves a mysterious man from a seaweed forest, rather like a selkie, who had "skin smooth and bright like sealskin," spoke with a "liquid voice," and is her true father. This short, captivating story is enhanced with watercolor-and--colored-pencil illustrations in natural tones; the illustrations' impressionistic style perfectly mirrors the text's blurring of the lines between the magical and the everyday. This gentle tale reminds readers of the power of stories to remake our humdrum worlds into something wondrous. Main characters present White. Enchanting. (Fiction. 9-13) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

David Almond is the acclaimed author of many novels for children, including Skellig , Kit's Wilderness , The Color of the Sun , and War Is Over , and he has collaborated with many artists on fiction for younger readers. His books sell all over the world, and he was the 2010 winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award. David Almond lives in England.

Beatrice Alemagna is the award-winning author and illustrator of several books, including Harold Snipperpot's Best Disaster Ever , Un grand jour de rien , Lotta combinaguai sa fare tutto by Astrid Lindgren, and Picasso & Lump by Nancy Lim. She is a six-time nominee for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award and has exhibited her art around the world. Beatrice Alemagna lives in Paris.