The Call of the Sea

by Marissa Creamer Rowan Public Library

Growing up near the Chesapeake Bay, I was always surrounded by water. The Tidewater region of Virginia is home to one of the world’s largest natural harbors, which incorporates the mouths of the Elizabeth, Nansemond, and James rivers with several smaller rivers, and empties into the Chesapeake Bay near its mouth leading to the Atlantic Ocean. Instead of rolling hills, there are wetlands, with snowy white egrets and great blue herons waiting patiently for a catch. The Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway runs near my family home, and we always timed our outings to the schedule of the drawbridge. We canoed, swam, and lured blue crabs into our nets with a chicken neck on a string. A day at the beach was as common as a day at the park in this area.  Of course, I took it all for granted, and never realized how much I would grow to miss it when I moved inland. After nearly 30 years living away, I still feel the pull of the sea and never feel quite at home until I’m back at the coast. So I felt a kinship with Maren, the girl who is turning into a mermaid in “The Mermaid’s Sister” by Carrie Anne Noble.

                                  The year is 1870, and Maren and her sister Clara live with their guardian in a cottage high atop Llanfair Mountain.  Auntie tells them fabulous tales of fairies and faraway lands, but their favorite story is of three orphan infants: Clara, who was brought by a stork; Maren, who arrived in a seashell; and their best friend O’Neill, who was found beneath an apple tree. Maren has always loved the water, and as she grows older, shimmering scales begin to appear beneath her skin, and webbing grows between her fingers and toes. Clara wants Auntie to use one of her healing potions to cure Maren, but as Auntie tells her, “There is no cure for being who you truly are.” Maren is slowly turning into a mermaid, and soon it becomes obvious that she must be taken to the sea or she will not survive.

                   So Clara and O’Neill set off in a wagon with Maren, but their journey to the sea does not go smoothly and they encounter unexpected obstacles. Will they reach the sea in time to save Maren? Find out what happens in this 2014 winner of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award for Young Adult Fiction.

Helen Dunmore’s “Ingo” also deals with the pull of the sea. On the coast of Cornwall, eleven-year-old Sapphire and her older brother are determined to prove that their father did not desert them or perish at sea. They believe their father was lured into the sea by the siren calls of the Mer people. Sapphire soon finds herself drawn towards the ocean to the underwater world of Ingo by voices that only she can hear. Will she leave behind her earthbound life for the magical sea kingdom of Ingo?

Mythical sea creatures are also featured in Lydia Millet’s new novel “Mermaids in Paradise.” This satirical novel takes place at a Caribbean resort, where newlyweds Deb and Chip meet a marine biologist who claims to have seen mermaids in a coral reef. In a comedy of errors, our newlyweds join forces with others to protect the mermaids’ habitat from a resort chain that wants to turn their reef into a theme park.

Put winter behind you and answer the call of the sea with these books from Rowan Public Library.