March Meeting

The Tail of Emily Windsnap =

The Book Buddies Book Club met yesterday to discuss The Tail of Emily Windsnap by Liz Kessler. Everyone really liked it, some "loved it" and others said it was their "favorite book." We all liked that it was about mermaids and that there was a lot of adventure. Most felt it was a quick read, especially from the middle to the end. Many club members are now involved with the second and third books in the Emily Windsnap series!

We had sugar cookies as part of our snack and made charm bracelets for our craft project using metallic beads and sea charms, including seashells, seahorses, fish, dolphins and starfish.

It was a lot of fun and we're all looking forward to our next meeting in April!

Emily extras

If you're like me, you will understand my excitement over what I call book "extras", products that are a spinoff of the books themselves. Things like journals and bookmarks that go along with a book - basically, things girls love. So imagine my joy at finding out about the extras that go along with the Emily Windsnap books! Thanks to Liz Kessler's extraordinarily detailed website, I've discovered the following items:

The Emily Windsnap Giftbox, featuring the first two books and a starfish necklace(!) and the Emily Windsnap Friendship Book which is a must have for best friends everywhere and includes lots of fun things like how to make friendship tokens and how to plan the ultimate mermaid sleepover. And although my birthday is not until December I'd just like to point out that I accept gifts at any time (hint, hint) especially from best friends (you know who you are!)

Emily Windsnap Trilogy

If you are enjoying The Tail of Emily Windsnap (and I really hope you are!) be sure and check out the next two installments in the series:

Emily Windsnap and the Monster from the Deep

Picture an island set in a glittering blue sea, sparkling with white sand and palm trees, a secret place where humans and merfolk live together and where a girl who grows a mermaid's tail when she enters the water is not considered a problem. To Emily Windsnap - half mermaid, half human - her new home is perfect. That is, until Emily ruins everything by waking a legendary sea monster known as the Kraken from its hundred-year sleep. As the Kraken rises from the deep, putting the future of the islanders in jeopardy, Emily makes a desperate attempt to save them. But how could she have dreamed that her best friend, Shona, would stop talking to her, or that Mandy Rushton, her old enemy from junior high, would turn up when least expected?

Emily Windsnap and the Castle in the Mist

When Emily Windsnap discovers an old diamond ring during a class hunt for trinkets, how is she supposed to know that the ring is half the key to unlocking an ancient curse by Neptune himself? Now, with the ring stuck firmly on her hand, Emily finds herself under a new curse: in just a few days, she'll cease to be half-human and half-mermaid and must say good-bye to one parent forever. Can she possibly find the other missing ring that will break all the curses? Is there anyone who can help her - before it's too late?

Also be sure to watch for Liz Kessler's new Philippa Fisher series coming this September!

Author Liz Kessler

Liz Kessler (pictured at right) is the amazing British author of the Emily Windsnap books (and the soon to be released new Philippa Fisher series) and she has a fantastic and very informative website. There is a very lengthy Frequently Asked Questions page that answers every question I think you'd ever want to know! She also has a really interesting gallery that includes this image of the Japanese cover of The Tail of Emily Windsnap! It's so interesting to see what other countries do with book covers.

There's also this explanation of how The Tail of Emily Windsnap came to be:

"My first book actually started out as a poem. One day, I was sitting at home staring into space (a very important part of any writer’s life) and a couple of lines came into my head, which I quickly scribbled down…

Mary Penelope lived on a boat,
Which was all very well, but it didn’t quite float…

I worked on the poem for a few weeks and sent it to a good friend and very special writing-buddy, Lee Weatherly, who liked it very much. She sent it to her editor, David Fickling, and he suggested I try turning it into a novel instead of a poem. So I thought about it, scratched my head, went ‘hmmm’ for a bit…and then got to work! And that’s how The Tail of Emily Windsnap came about!"

March Book Selection

We have a new book! Our March reading selection is The Tail of Emily Windsnap by Liz Kessler. We will meet for snacks and a book discussion on Monday, March 24th at 3:30pm in the Children's Program Room. I have extra copies at the Children's Desk if anyone needs one. Read and enjoy!

Everybody has a secret. Mine's a little different, though. I didn't even know about it until the first day of swim class in seventh grade. You see, I'd never been allowed to go in the water before. As it turns out, swimming comes naturally to me. Very naturally. In fact, so naturally that you might even say...well, it's true. Here's my secret:

I figured out that I'm a mermaid.