EMILY WINDSNAP AND THE CASTLE IN THE MIST

Back for a third adventure, Emily Windsnap, half-human/half-mermaid, has settled into life with both parents on and around Allpoints Island, where she’s found a new best friend, Shona, a mermaid “all girly and sparkly, with shiny long blond hair.” But her parents’ arguments worry her. Perhaps they are planning to split up. On a class trip she finds a diamond ring King Neptune wants, but it won’t come off her hand. Neptune’s angry response is to send her far away where she finds a castle inhabited by a dark-haired, green-eyed boy, a semi-mer like herself. Together, the three young people find the ring’s missing counterpart, undoing a 500-year-old curse and making possible peace between humans and merfolk—including her own parents. The improbable plot is told in first person, quickly paced and supported by plenty of descriptive detail about the appearance of the characters and the colorful underwater life. This should be an easy sell to girls looking for a friendship story with more than a touch of make believe. (Fiction. 9-12)