Customer Reviews

Blue Skin of the Sea

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Graham Salisbury's book, "Blue Skin of the Sea" is an intriguing account of the life of Sonny Mandoza and his cousin, Keo. It has received many awards in the young adult literature category, but is such an exquisite book that it could be taught on the college level. The book contains many mythological archetypes and could easily be applied to what Joseph Campbell called the "monomyth". This book dispells all inclinations that young adult literature is not worthy literature for adults. Young adults will appreciate the story in the way it relates to them and the things they are facing in their lives, but adults can appreciate the story for the peice of literary art that it is. This is one book that in one night will transport you to the islands of the pacific and engulf you with the culture. Through reading this, you will find yourself coming in contact with your childhood fears and overcoming them with "adult" insight. Read the book. ! Read it to your kids. Be fascinated.

The book Blue Skin of the sea is a great book. ... This book is about a young Hawaiian boy who grew up on the ocean but does not like it. Sonny goes through many obstacles, which include meeting mean people, being made fun of, and losing a girlfriend. During the book you hear about Sonny's whole family including his mother who just had passed away. "Don't ever do that again", this was a quote that Sonny always remembered but never knew who said it and why. Overall this was a very well written novel.

This book was required reading at my school, so I read it before the school year started. Graham Salisbury is a great author, and I really liked his books because he gives you a clear image of his thoughts while he was writing the novel. Some of my classmates don't enjoy reading, but I love to read, so this book was definitely a great choice. I liked the way he combined experiences that seemed real and ones that were astonishingly unreal.

Blue Skin of the Sea
By Graham Salisbury
Genre: short stories

These eleven stories are about a boy named Sonny Mendoza and his cousin, Keo, and their life on the island of Hawaii. Sonny and Keo both live in the village of Kailua, but Sonny's mother died and he was temporarily living with Keo and his parents up in the hills. One day, Sonny's father decided that Sonny was old enough to come live with him down by the beach. Sonny agreed. The men in Sonny's family are all supposed to be fishermen, but Sonny is afraid of being in the water. His father even gave him swimming lessons but he continued to feel as if the ocean was trying to swallow him and he can't seem to figure out why he continues to feel this way. Sonny and Keo spend a lot of their time with each other, but as they get older they start to spend less and less time together. Throughout the stories, the boys who were children become young men and they go through hardships like learning to swim, starting school, bullies, and many other things.
I believe that this book relates to Crossing the Wire, by Will Hobbs, because the story lines are both based on the lives of young boys, their hardships, and on how they get through these tough obstacles. I enjoyed author Graham Salisbury's very detailed and energetic writing style. All of his stories had a good detailed plot. He also made it so the stories would not become boring or slow for too long. I really enjoyed reading Blue Skin of the Sea because each of the stories were well written and never became boring, at least not for long. Also, I thought that all of the stories were very interesting.

Blue skin of the sea is the best book i have read that involved things that actually happened to me when i was there. like in chapter 10 when rudy was calling sonnie "fah-king haole sheshe pants" I definatly related to that because not only was Rudy doing thatto sonnie but to me to and all the other haoles in the world not trying to be racists. i gotta hand it to sonnie boy because i would never get in to a fight with anyone for a stinken girl just for speech

I first read this book about a year ago and I've loved it since then.This book is a great summer read.I can't tell you how much I loved this book.It's not really a novel.It's really a group of short stories with the same main character. You can almost smell the salt in the sea air.Beautiful, not sad and and not empty.It may sound cliche but this is a warm family tale.

... This book was the best book I have ever read! I really makes the reader think and keeps you hanging off of every word! I love the way Graham Salisbury writes. Graham always keeps you interested in the book. I love this book because it is about some kids who are about my age. The tension makes the reader not want to put the book down. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a book with action and keeps you interested in it.

When I first read the book "Lord of the Deep" by this author, I was blown away by the huge amount of discription that is put into it. This book has the same feel to it. You can not only relate to the charater of Sonny, but you somehow become intwinded with him, seeing through his eyes. It was almost as if I could see all the places he went, just as clear as if i was actually there...all the colours of the ocean the land and even feel the emotions.

The stories were wonderfully placed and you could clearlly see Sonny's transition from insecure young boy to mature young man. I would recomend this to anyone.

Sonny Mendoza is afraid of the sea, not such a great thing, since he lives on an island, completely surrounded by a vast expanse of blue, stretching off into the distance. Sonny is...sensitive, but not necessarily weak, afraid, but not afraid to admit it, and dispels all myths that teenagers are simple-minded creatures. Another great coming-of-age type story!