This is a really cute book. It’s quite different from most of the books that I review, mainly because they usually are of a different age level and style of writing.

Emily lives on a boat with her mother, and doesn’t wonder about her father, that is until she takes swimming lessons.

Her legs froze up, and she couldn’t feel them any longer. She discovers that she is really a mermaid- with tail and all- but no one knows. Emily explores the rugged polluted waters outside her English town, and discovers a world lead by a frighteningly oppressive dictator who uses magic to control his people. Emily lives in peace between the water and her life on land until someone finds out about her secret.

I devoured this book in fifth or sixth grade, listening to it on tape (ancient technology, of course) up in our tree. I’ve always been slightly fascinated with mermaids, and have found that there are not many good books about them. The Emily Windsnap books are an outlier in that category. Even if they will never win a Newbery award, or that equivalent in Great Britain, they are a thoroughly enjoyable series leaving me quite nostalgic.