Annie Lumsden, the Girl from the Sea

Description

A magical story about finding your identity from one of the most acclaimed storytellers of his generation, richly illustrated in full colour by an internationally renowned artist. My mother says that all things can be turned to tales. I thought she meant tales like fish tails, but I was wrong. She meant tales like this, tales that are stories. But this tale of mine is very like a fish tail too... Annie has never been like the other girls. Her mam tried sending her to school when she was small, but Annie couldn't seem to make words or numbers stick. She prefers instead to be swimming in the sea, or sunbathing on the shore at Stupor Beach, her head full of tales. She should have been a fish, her mam always tells her, and Annie knows the truth of it. Then a stranger who comes to town is struck by the beauty and the wonder of her, and Annie Lumsden realizes that perhaps she really is half a creature from the sea.

David Almond is the acclaimed author of Skellig, winner of the Whitbread Children's Award and the Carnegie Medal; Kit's Wilderness, winner of the Smarties Award Silver Medal, Highly Commended for the Carnegie Medal, and shortlisted for the Guardian Award; and The Fire-Eaters, winner of the Whitbread Award, the Smarties Gold Award, shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and is the 2010 winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for writing! He lives in Northumberland. Slog's Dad was shortlisted for the 2012 Kate Greenaway Medal.

A tender story, cheerfully illustrated, about unconventional people and the freedom to be yourself. * The Sunday Times * I really like the way that David Almond writes. His descriptions are mesmerising. * Books Up North * Featured in a piece with David Almond showing readers where he works in WRD Magazine. * WRD * David Almond's glowing prose conjures a magical world, building a picture of a special girl who is very much a creature of the sea. [...] Beatrice Alemagna's beautiful illustrations complement the text perfectly, evoking the sea, the shore, both the everyday and the mysterious: "Annie Lumsden, seal girl, fish girl, dolphin girl...". The story and the pictures will haunt the reader long after the covers of the book are closed. * The School Librarian *