The Tail of Emily Windsnap

May 31, 2004
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.

June 1, 2004
Gr 4-6-Seventh-grader Emily Windsnap has never learned to swim, in spite of the fact that she and her mother live on a houseboat. When she finally takes a swimming class at school, her legs turn into a fishtail. She tries to hide her strange affliction, but something draws her to the sparkling surf. Soon, she is secretly gliding through the water as a mermaid. Below the waves, she meets Shona, also 12, who takes her to mermaid school and leads her on several adventures. When Emily learns the intriguing history of the Shiprock community and of illegal marriages between humans and merpeople, she begins to look for her merman father. Danger, humor, confrontation, and even a trial before Neptune all play a part in her search. Eventually, she finds her dad and comes to understand the truth about her oddly controlling neighbor, Mr. Beeston; her mother's dislike of water; and her parents' love affair. All ends well when the family is reunited and swims away to live a new life on a secret merfolk island. This fantasy has some delightful moments, but not enough to keep it afloat. Characters are not fully developed, the plot wavers between complicated and oversimplified, and the transition from merworld to human is not smooth.-Beth Tegart, Oneida City Schools, NY

Copyright 2004 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2004
Gr. 4-7. This first novel opens with a classic teaser: "Can you keep a secret?" It turns out that the secret is a particularly juicy one. Though outwardly a normal seventh-grader, Emily Windsnap transforms into a mermaid when she goes swimming. The phenomenon worries her but thrills her, too, especially when she discovers an underwater "mer-city" not far from where she lives, and begins to learn the answers to nagging questions about her origins: Why did her father abandon her when she was a baby? Why can't her mother remember details about her husband? After a new mermaid friend mentions "illegal marriages" between mer-people and humans, readers will guess where things are headed--long before Emily herself does. Emily's eventual reunion with her merman father seems overly reliant on luck and coincidence, but her determination keeps things cruising along, and the premise of someone slipping easily into a shimmery underwater world has considerable allure. Light, imagination-tickling fare ideal for middle-grade girls, with charming ink-wash illustrations scattered throughout.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)

Starred review from July 12, 2004
Kessler's debut novel—a whale of a tale that pays homage to the sea and its mythical creatures—makes a splash as an audiobook, deftly performed by British actress Williams. Younger listeners may recognize Williams as the voice of mouse-dancer Angelina in the animated television series Angelina Ballerina
. But everyone else will simply applaud the actress's turn as 12-year-old Emily Windsnap, who discovers she is half mermaid. Unfortunately, Emily discovers her secret upon entering a swim class at her new, very intimidating junior high school. Her journey to navigate uncharted waters—both literally, in the ocean, and in the halls of school, makes for an entertaining listen. Williams captures the believable rhythm of dialogue between daughter and mother or preteen peers with equal skill. Wringing notes of excitability, trepidation and newfound confidence, she unfolds Emily's discoveries at just the right pace. And adding extra oomph, Williams's portrayal of Millie, a sometimes-clairvoyant friend of Emily's mother, is a great bit of comic relief. Ages 8-up.

July 1, 2004
Attractive black-and-white spot art accompanies this tale about a girl who learns, to her initial horror, that she is a mermaid. Kessler's story has more potential than success and, while the mermaid theme alone will satisfy some readers, the relatively flat characters and convenient plot devices are disappointing.

(Copyright 2004 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)