Keeper

Keeper was born in the ocean, and she believes she is part mermaid. So as a ten-year-old she goes out looking for her mother--an unpredictable and uncommonly gorgeous woman who swam away when Keeper was three--and heads right for the ocean, right for the sandbar where mermaids are known to gather. But her boat is too small for the surf--and much too small for the storm that is brewing on the horizon. Kathi Appelt follows her award-winning and New York Times bestselling novel The Underneath with this stunning, mysterious, and breathtaking tale of a girl who outgrows fairy tales just a little too late--and learns in the end that there is nothing more magical and mythical than love itself. ϡ쯦랠

to Ten-year-old Keeper, This Moon Is Her Chance To Fix All That Has Gone Wrong...and So Much Has Gone Wrong. But She Knows Who Can Make Things Right Again: Meggie Marie, Her Mermaid Mother Who Swam Away When Keeper Was Just Three. A Blue Moon Calls The Mermaids To Gather At The Sandbar, And That's Exactly Where She Is Headed -- In A Small Boat, In The Middle Of The Night, With Only Her Dog, Bd (best Dog), And A Seagull Named Captain.

When The Riptide Pulls At The Boat, Tugging Her Away From The Shore And Deep Into The Rough Waters Of The Gulf Of Mexico, Panic Sets In, And The Fairy Tales That Lured Her Out There Go Tumbling Into The Waves. Maybe The Blue Moon Isn't Magic And Maybe The Sandbar Won't Sparkle With Mermaids And Maybe -- Oh, No...maybe Is Just Too Difficult To Bear. Kathi Appelt Follows Up To Her new York Times Bestseller, the Underneath, With A Tale That Will Pull Right At Your Very Core -- Stronger Than Moon Currents -- Capturing The Crash And Echo Of The Waves And The Dark Magic Of The Ocean.

publishers Weekly

when You’re 10 Years Old And You’ve Had A Really Bad Day, You Look For Your Mother. That’s What Keeper Is Doing—only Keeper Believes Her Mother, Who Left When She Was Three, Is A Mermaid, So Her Plan Involves Getting A Rowboat Out Into The Sea Late That Night. And Because Keeper Has Let Down Signe, Her Guardian; Dogie, Her Best Friend/employer; And Even Mr. Beauchamp, Her Surrogate Grandfather, She Has To Carry Out That Plan Alone. Amid Scattered Pieces Of August’s Dreamlike Spot Art, Appelt Unfurls Keeper’s Magical Story Slowly, Looking Back Over Keeper’s Day And Forward To Her Longed-for Reunion With The Mother. As In Her Newbery Honor-winning The Underneath, The Point Of View Shifts Between Characters Human, Animal, And Otherwise, But With Less Of The Precocity That Sometimes Encumbered Its Predecessor. Texas’s Gulf Coast, Alive With Cajun Spice And Superstition, Provides A Mysterious Haven For Them All. A Narrative Thread Based On A Tender Love Story Between Two Teenage Boys May Draw Controversy, But Appelt Masterfully Balances Themes Of Loss And Renewal And Demonstrates That Magic Works In Unexpected Ways. In So Doing, She Has Written Another Keeper. Ages 8-12. (may)

Keeper is a breathtaking, magical novel from National Book Award finalist and Newbery Honoree Kathi Appelt. To ten-year-old Keeper the moon is her chance to fix all that has gone wrong ... and so much has gone wrong. But she knows who can make things right again: Maggie Marie, her mermaid mother, who swam away when Keeper was just three. A blue moon calls the mermaids to gather at the sandbar, and that's exactly where Keeper is headed - in a small boat. In the middle of the night, with only her dog, BD (Best Dog), and seagull named Captain. When the riptide pulls at the boat, tugging her away from the shore and deep into the rough waters of the Gulf of mexico, panic sets in and the fairy tales that lured her out there go tumbling into the waves. Maybe the blue moon won't sparkle with mermaids and maybe - Oh, no ... "Maybe" is just too difficult to bear. On the night of the blue moon when mermaids are said to gather on a sandbar in the Gulf of Mexico, ten-year-old Keeper sets out in a small boat, with her dog BD and a seagull named Captain, determined to find her mother, a mermaid, as Keeper has always believed, who left long ago to return to the sea.