Name: Keeper
ISBN: 9781416950608

Kathi Appelt

On the night of the blue moon when mermaids are said to gather on a sandbar in the Gulf of Mexico, ten-year-old Keeper sets out in a small boat, with her dog BD and a seagull named Captain, determined to find her mother, a mermaid, as Keeper has always believed, who left long ago to return to the sea.

Keeper

Sarah Sammis

Keeper by Kathi Appelt is about a ten year old girl trying to fix a day's worth of bad events. It all began with crabs and her overactive imagination. She has a plan to make everything right.

Keeper has been raised to believe her mother is a mermaid. She's been in Signe's care since she was three, living on a tiny road tucked between the Gulf of Mexico and a nature preserve. There are three houses and an old bus that serves as a surf shop.

Keeper's story is intertwined with the stories of the other people living on that strip of beach — Signe, Dogie, and Mr. Beauchamp. Appelt spins her tale in a free verse way, using repetition, poetic allusions, alliteration and the occasional list to create a compelling and quick read.

To everyone I've recommended the book to, I've described Keeper as the inverse of The Mermaid's Mirror by L.K. Madigan (link to review). While Madigan's story is about a girl who is a mermaid but doesn't know it, Keeper is about a girl who believes she's a mermaid but probably isn't.

That isn't to say there aren't mermaids in Keeper. There are but how they play a part in the novel isn't what I expected. It was a delightful twist and one I'm not going to spoil here.