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AMY'S EYES by Richard Kennedy Kirkus Star

AMY'S EYES

By

Pub Date: June 12th, 1985
Publisher: Harper & Row

A ship pursued by pirates goes after gold and destiny in a 437-page allegorical fairy tale resounding with quotes from Mother Goose and the Bible. The captain is a doll turned human, and with him is his sister Amy, an orphan gift who is temporarily a doll. There's a woman on board who may be a witch, a first mate wrongly suspected of disloyalty, a second mate (named Skivvy) created from old underwear with a brain that is chapter and verse from the Bible, a mutinous screwball duck, and a crew of toy animals brought to life for the job when no human sailors would sign on for so strange a venture. As for Amy's eyes, they are risked and lost in the search for gold but marvelously restored to her in the end, as are her long-lost father and general good sense on board. Never quite as preposterous as it sounds, or nearly as ponderous, the voyage is a treasure hunt of true and false clues and intriguing puzzles, and reads like a breeze.