Reviews: (by author)

Hoffman, Alice. Water Babies. NY: Scholastic, 2003. $5.99. ISBN
0-439-09865-5.

With an economy of language, Alice Hoffman weaves Water Tales, a collection of two short novels for young adults where the salty sea foam and everyday realism intertwine to tell magical narratives of loyal friendships, a forlorn mermaid, two twelve-year-old girls, and two peculiar McGill brothers. In Aquamarine, lifelong friends, Hailey and Claire, both hope that "August would continue beyond the confines of its thirty-one days" because at the conclusion of the summer, Claire and her grandparents would be moving to Florida. After a powerful storm and with less than a week before the Capri Beach Club will be boarded up forever, the two friends must rescue a teenage mermaid who is too stubborn and lovesick to leave the chlorinated pool and to return to the ocean, say their goodbyes to one another, and confront an unfamiliar future. In Indigo, people of Oak Grove are fearful of water while three friends Martha Glimmer and two McGill brothers dream of the rain, sitting on the rooftop and observing a town where hardly anything ever happens. They decide "to take hold of their fate" and set out on a route to Ocean City by the incandescent light of the moon. In the process, the three cement their friendship, save Oak Grove from a terrible flooding and change the lives of their families. Hoffman's Water Tales is a treat for all those born under the water signs and anyone who dreams of mermaids.

Reviewed by A. B., October 2003

Back to Reviews G-K