Reviews

Gr 5-8-- As she did in Playing Beatie Bow (Atheneum, 1982), Park creates a believable world within a world--this time an undersea one of merpeople in telepathic contact with sea creatures; and an underearth one of menehune, a race of dwarfs who live in burrows and fear fire. Set in the near future, this ecological fantasy begins when the narrator, Riko, was 14, and her older sister, Sif, was unable to cope with city life in the home of their married sister in Australia. Riko engineers their return to their remote islet home and, with adolescent fear of change, tries to scotch the growing attraction between Sif and a persistent marine scientist who has come for rare shells. There are some wonderful and funny scenes as he gradually grasps their half-sea connection, and even visits the undersea city where Riko's brother and mother live. But greater change threatens as pollution wrought by humans encroaches, deforming sea life and threatening the Earth itself. Well plotted, the last chapter is a bit anticlimactic but satisfying as summary. There are enchanting scenes of beauty and danger; perceptive, expressive writing; and vividly drawn characters. --Ruth M. McConnell, San Antonio Public Library