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Critics' Opinion:
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First Published:
Feb 2004, 128 pages
Paperback:
Jun 2005, 124 pages
Book Reviewed by:
BookBrowse Review Team
Magic hovers just beneath the surface in this unusual and moving story about the bond between a boy and his grandfather.
An unusual and moving story about the magical bond between a boy and his grandfather.
Does it just happen that Gavin and Grandad see the seal while they are fishing in the harbor? Just happen that Grandad talks about the selkies, the seal people who can leave the water and take human form? Just happen that Grandad is finishing the beautiful miniature boat he's making for Gavin's tenth birthday, and Gavin decides to call her Selkie? And at that moment, Grandad has his stroke. Could the selkies have something to do with all this
Day after day at the hospital, Gavin tries to get through to helpless and speechless Grandad, trying to reach him, explain what's happened to him. Everyone else has given up. But Gavin will try anything. Even asking the selkies to help. To do that, he must give them something to show them how much it matters. What is the dearest thing he owns?
Chapter 1
Gavin and Grandad were fishing for mackerel from the harbor wall when the seal popped its head out of the water. For a moment Gavin thought it was a loose net-float bobbing about. Then he saw the two eyes, large, round, and glistening black, staring straight at him. The thing rose a bit more and he saw the whiskery muzzle and knew what he was looking at.
He'd never seen a seal that close. They often came to Stonehaven but usually stayed farther out. What's more, though it must have seen Gavin, it didn't duck out of sight but stayed where it was, staring. Gavin stared straight back.
"It looks like Dodgem begging for handouts," he said.
(Dodgem was Gran's dog, a sort-of-bulldog. He looked tough, but was really a total wimp, and lazy and greedy with it. You couldn't imagine him dodging anything. Gavin's elder brother, Donald, swore he'd once seen him collide with an old woman with a walker, though he'd been moving slower than she ...
A lovely book that is well worth reading, and one that would be particularly apt for children coping with the serious illness of a family member, elderly or otherwise.
(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).
Full Review
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Peter Dickinson, born in
1927, has written more than fifty novels for
adults and young readers; and has won both
the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread
Children's Award twice.
He is a tall, elderly, bony, beaky, wrinkled
sort of fellow, with a lot of untidy gray
hair and a weird hooting voice – in fact he
looks and sounds a bit like Gandalf’s crazy
...
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