Emily Windsnap and the Monster from the Deep (Unabridged) [Audio Download]

We first met 12-year-old Emily in THE TAIL OF EMILY WINDSNAP and learned her secret: she's half-mermaid, half-human. Emily, however, never knew this secret herself until she took swimming lessons. Not only does she discover her fishy genes, she also learns that her father, a merman, didn't abandon her as a baby after all. Instead, he was imprisoned by the angry ruler of the oceans, Neptune, who found out about the illegal love affair between her human mother and merman father. At the end of the book, the family is reunited and sent to live in a secret place where humans and merfolk can live together in harmony.

EMILY WINDSNAP AND THE MONSTER FROM THE DEEP begins as Emily and her family are discovering and exploring their beautiful new home, Allpoints Island. Emily couldn't be happier. At last, she can get to know her father and also not feel like a freak about being half-mermaid. But Emily soon realizes that even at Allpoints Island, she's different. None of the other mermaids are half-human. She longs to fit in with the other kids, and in an effort to impress two mermaid girls, Althea and Marina, Emily convinces her best friend Shona to accompany her on a risky adventure. There's a secret spooky lagoon that none of the other mermaid kids ever went into because "they're not brave enough" and have been "told not to go in there so many times." But Emily and Shona are new to the area, and Emily thinks it's the perfect opportunity to show how brave they are.

When Emily and Shona enter the secret lagoon, they don't realize the trouble they're about to cause. They accidentally wake up the Kraken, a mythical monster that is supposed to sleep for 100 years and only be woken up by Neptune himself. If the Kraken is awoken before this time, it will be [...] and cause much destruction. And that's exactly what happens. Now, the monster is on the loose and it's up to Emily to save Allpoints Island!

Not only is Emily dealing with the typical problems of a 12-year-old, she also must save her family and her new home. The book is told in the alternating voices of the heroine, Emily, and her old Brightport adversary, Mandy Rushton. Mandy's family wins a cruise that ends up in the Kraken's path. The alternating voices sometimes takes away from the flow of the novel, however, and slows down the adventure. Still, EMILY WINDSNAP AND THE MONSTER FROM THE DEEP is a fun-filled middle-grade fantasy that will appeal especially to young girls.

--- Reviewed by Kristi Olson

Emily Windsnap And the monster of the Deep is A great sequel to: The Tail Of Emily Windsnap. It is A great story, loaded with action, and is A real page turner, it is a book that you won't want to put down. Emily reunites with her nemisis Mandy, Of wich mandy's father wants to catch a Mermaid. What happens? Well youll find out when you read this great underwater tale. full of fun, and if i could i'd give it 10 stars.

The second book in Liz Kessler's Emily Windsnap series starts with the Windsnap family happily relocated to Allpoints Island, with its soft white sand beaches, crystal clear water, palm trees - in short an island paradise.

If you're thinking that this all sounds pretty great, you should know that Allpoints Island is located right in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle, and that there are some parts off limits to little half-mermaids for good reason.

As Alfred, Lord Tennyson once said:

"Below the thunders of the upper deep;
Far far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth ..."

(Shamelessly quoted by me, not from the original source, "The Kraken" as you would believe, but from the flyleaf of this very book)

Being a girl of insatiable curiosity, Emily decides to explore her new territory, and before you can say "Ooops! She did it again", her exploits get her into enough hot water to really make a Kraken get steamed. Soon she's facing a three part nightmare, involving the aforementioned cranky beastie, a stubborn and bossy trident-wielding Neptune, and a blast from the past whom she thought she was rid of at last.

Better than the first, this one is to be read in one sitting, because you won't want to put it down.

Amanda Richards, August 15, 2007