Hannah: Daughters of the Sea by Kathryn Lasky

Hannah wants to be normal, but she's not. While others in Bstone complain of the moody sea, it beckons her. The sea's billowing waves smooth her, while rolling fields make her ill. Hannah leaves a ring of salt in the bathtub at night, and can see a faint tracing of scales on her feet. There is something in her that's different, wrong-and deeply thrilling.

Only one person seems to know who-or what-Hannah is. He's a guest in the house where she works as a scullery girl, and his fascinated gaze followers her. She doesn't understand the pull he exerts or her longing. But even as the mystery deepens, Hannah is sure of one thing. A sea change is coming.

*****

In this first installment to the Daughters of the Sea series, Hannah, an orphan takes a job as a scullery maid with a wealthy Bostonian family and discovers a secret about herself that is just as wondrous as the sea. I enjoyed reading Hannah because it’s historical fiction with a magical story behind the characters. From the mysterious painter, a sly cat and her dark minded owner, to the call of the sea, Lasky has done it again creating a vivid world you’re dying to visit. Most of Lasky’s books I’ve read have been based on hard, solid historical facts, this book is different. Hannah takes a twist on a well known myth and flings it-not into the modern world-but to a past one, a world of romantics and of course, scullery girls.

Maybe it’s just me, but I like reading about how a household was run by one butler and a whole army of servants or how a portrait was painted. By far, though, my favorite thing in this book was the vases the Hawleys insist on lugging all over the world with them; they are the inspiration in giving Hannah the idea that she is part of the sea.

Besides the somewhat “normal” side the story, there is a magical side as well, a side that makes the book even more exciting. I can’t until the next book is out-I’m dying to see what happens to Hannah!

Overall, Lasky did not disappoint me one bit and I think Lasky fans and other readers alike will be enchanted by this lovable tail...er, tale of one girl’s magical discovery.

*Kathryn Lasky is no stranger to the sea, having crossed the Alantic in a thiry-foot sailboat twice. She is author of mover 50 books and has received a Newberry Honor, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, and a Washington Post-Children's Book Guild Nonfiction Award. Kathryn lives with her husband in Cambridge, Massachusetts.*

|Pages: 310|Published: Sept. 2009|Publisher: Scholastics|

|Genre: Historical fiction, fantasy|

|Age Group: Ages 10+|Content: None|

|Enjoyed It: 5/5|Content Rating: 5/5|Cover: 5/5| (NEW)!

|Overall|