Author Shannon Whitney Messenger began Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays a while back. If you love middle grade literature, check out her blog on Mondays for a list of other sites featuring MG books.
Today I’ll talk about The Undrowned Child by Michelle Lovric.
From Goodreads: Teodora has always longed to visit Venice. And at last she has her chance. But strange and sinister things are afoot in the beautiful floating city.
Teo is quickly subsumed into a secret world in which salty-tongued mermaids run subversive printing presses, ghosts good and bad patrol the streets, statues speak, rats read and librarians turn fluidly into cats. And where a book, The Key to the Secret City, leads Teo straight into the heart of the danger that threatens to destroy the city to which she feels she belongs.
An ancient proverb seems to unite Teo with a Venetian boy, Renzo, and with the Traitor who has returned from the dark past to wreak revenge…. But who is the undrowned child destined to save Venice?
From Vicki: One day at the library, I came across this book and thought it sounded perfect for A-Read. He likes fantasies, but this would also push his boundaries a bit because of the historical and foreign setting.
He loved it! He told me I HAD to read it. So I did. And while I read The Undrowned Child, A-Read read the companion novel, The Mourning Emporium.
I loved it, too. A great mix of history, Venice, fantasy, and quirky characters. The sailor-mouthed mermaids who loved curry were a hoot.
What’s your favorite book set in Venice? Or with mermaids? Or set in the late 1800s?
YA Author VB Tremper 