Selkie Girl

December 1, 2008
Gr 6-9-An extraordinary, beautifully written tale about belonging, love, and the laws of nature. Sixteen-year-old Elin Jean lives in the Orkney Islands north of Scotland and is magnetically drawn to the sea. She knows she is different because of the webbing between her fingers that regenerates if it is cut. Though her father loves her mother, their relationship is tarnished by a mysterious underlying discord. He is determined to make Elin a normal girl by repeatedly cutting the webbing while her mother desperately tries to shield her from pain. Her compassionate grandfather pushes her to discover the truth for herself. Elin is attracted to Tam, a Gypsy boy in town. Her physical strangeness and his heritage set them apart from those around them, but perhaps this helps bring them together. By chance, Elin finds a seal skin hidden above a door in her house and learns the truth about her origins. The discovery is simultaneously freeing and burdensome. Brooks's rich prose reverberates with vivid, cinematic images. The author succeeds in conveying the fully fleshed-out characters' anguish and conflict. This marvelous offering brings to mind Alice Hoffman's "Indigo" (2002) and Karen Hesse's "The Music of Dolphins" (1996, both Scholastic). It's not to be missed."Renee Steinberg, formerly at Fieldstone Middle School, Montvale, NJ"

Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2008
Grades 6-9 Although the flowery pink-and-turquoise cover art suggests a sweet, girly mermaid story, Brooks brooding, romantic tale of a shape-shifting seal-girl is drawn straight from Celtic folklore. Her mother is a selkie (a seal/human shape-shifter), her father is human, but Elin Jean belongs nowhere. Her misshapen hands and webbed fingers mark her as a freak in her small island village, and her efforts to prevent the annual culling of seal pups enrage local fishermen. Her only defender is another outcast, Tam, the son of a gypsy peddler. But when Elin Jean finds her mothers seal skin and follows her into the sea, she finds she is a freak in the selkie world, too. Is Elin Jean the girl-seal of selkie prophecy destined to change their world forever? Brooks coming-of-age story is full of secrets, teenage angst, fierce longing to belong, dramatic rescues, revenge, and true love. Her tone mimics traditional lore: appropriately dark, moody, and satisfyingly old-fashioned. Suggest this to girls who enjoyed Berlie Dohertys Daughter of the Sea (1997), a selkie story for younger readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)