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Read The Sea Fairies (2006)

The Sea Fairies (2006)

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Author
Rating
3.71 of 5 Votes: 5
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ISBN
1421818884 (ISBN13: 9781421818887)
Language
English
Publisher
1st world library

The Sea Fairies (2006) - Plot & Excerpts

I usually like old, crazy, moralistic children's literature. I have a high tolerance for the preachy, self-righteous tone that pervades many children's classics (e.g. The Princess and the Goblin, The Water Babies.) But this, with its slapdash plot and barely-there characters and limited imaginative scope, just isn't much good. The best I can say for it is that its villain Zog presages Mr. Motley of Perdido Street Station, which is something, though Zog and his final end are both disappointingly under-developed.Very young children might enjoy it, but even they would derive ideas from it that are undesirable (e.g., that it is ever acceptable to diss cephalopods, as the unpleasant child protagonist does and Baum endorses) plain wrong (that the plural of octopus is "octopi," that octopuses have teeth, that there's enough sunlight in the deep sea for mermaids there to cook by solar power, and that not much lives in the mid-ocean) or slightly dangerous (that mermaids are utterly sappy and benign.)Wonderful illustrations, though.

Read a fair few reviews, I think people commonly mis-interpret the whole slave aspect. Slave and servant once were synonymous. There was no distinction between the paid vs unpaid or willing vs forced aspect of the work. Same mistake commonly made with the bible. After all sacho, the gold smith, and cap'n joe hardly fit the bill of whipped and chained slave. They were saved from drowning by zog, given a roof over here heads, well fed, albeit terrified of zog, sacho in who's quirky way hardly wanted out. Likewise the sea creatures were not beaten or forced but rather it quite clearly states they were willing slaves (see servants here) That aside. The book was ok, I could see a sort of pattern with other books by Baum.

What do You think about The Sea Fairies (2006)?

The descriptions of the mermaids and their dwellings and sea life was much different than I had expected. All good... Just different. The story revolves around a young girl and an old seaman that are graced with the presence of the mermaids during one of their boat rides. The mermaids have decided to turn the humans into mermaids in order to abolish a rumor that mermaids are evil. The mermaids are hospitable and introduce them to the ways and creatures of the sea. But as they make their way from place to place they must be cautious of the evil, magic sea serpent Zog. When I have kids I'd love to read this book aloud to them as an ongoing bedtime story. It appeals to both boys and girls alike I think.
—N. Ray

MG FantasyA lesser known work by L. Frank Baum, author of "The Wizard of Oz". Published in 1911.Sassy young Mayre "Trot" and old uncle Cap'n Bill who has one "meat" leg and one "hickory" leg, are invited to visit the undersea world by the beautiful mermaids (if only they will live to tell the tale, as no man who's been lured into the waters by mermaids has ever returned to ship or land).And so begins their undersea adventures: They are given mermaid tails and the ability to breath under water. They are taken to meet Queen Aquarene (who carries a magic wand) and Princess Clia in a Palace at the bottom of the deep blue sea. There are a number of harmless adventures but then they are captured by sea devils (squid) and delivered to the den of the evil Wizard Zog a hideous creature and arch enemy of Queen Aquarene, who means to kill them all.You can see some aspects similar in nature to the Oz story.Worth a read.
—Janet

My mother recently got a Kindle. This was the first book she downloaded. She was really excited to reread it because she remembered really enjoying it as a child. Since she was so excited about it, I decided that I should read it.Can't say I was that excited about it. I didn't like either of the main characters - particularly Trot. After I read it, I asked my mother what it was that she liked so much about it. She said that she mostly enjoyed the illustrations when she was little. Since the kindle version I downloaded didn't have any illustrations, I can't say anything about them. However, I can see how they would probably be really cool based on the descriptions of things in the story. I'd actually like to find a 'real' copy of this book and check out the illustrations sometime.
—Corrie

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Read books by author L. Frank Baum

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