Customer Reviews

The Eyes of the Amaryllis

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When I first read this book, I was blown away. I was only 11, but I could still grasp the power of the story. Jenny, an 11 year old girl is sent to live with her grandmother by the sea shore. The mystery begins. Jenny's grandmother tells her the story of her grandfather's death, the figure head of a ship washes up on the shore, and a mysterious man appears at their doorstep. A very grand mystery as well as an unforgettable love story. I recommend this book to anyone with a heart that beats and feels and loves.

This is the BEST BOOK I EVER READ! It is very well written.It is a story about a girl who comes to live with her grandmother bythe sea and then finds out she has been waiting for thirty years for a sign from her husband, whom she loved dearly, who died in a shipwreck just off the shore. It is a ghost story, but also a story of neverending love.

Before reading "The Eyes of the Amaryllis", I'd harbored the secret suspicion that Natalie Babbitt's best known work, "Tuck Everlasting", was a fluke. I don't mean to say that the great writing found in that book was of a fluke-like nature. I mean that I thought of Babbitt as a children's author who preferred to write realistic fiction and once, in the case of "Tuck", wrote something fantastical. I don't know where I got that idea. Maybe it came from "Tuck" itself. There's something about that book that feels a little too natural. Like the author would much rather be writing about hardcore issues and is just using the whole "living forever" thing as a metaphor. So when I picked up "The Eyes of the Amaryllis", I thought I'd know what to expect. A straightforward story about a girl and her grandmother by the sea. What I got instead was a supernatural thriller in which two mortal souls go head to head with forces they cannot hope to understand. Thrilling? You don't know the half of it.

Though named after her father's mother, Jenny Reade has never visited the old woman at her house by the sea. This is mostly because Jenny's father is afraid of that cruel old ocean. Years ago, when he was just a teen, her dad watched in horror as his father's ship, the Amaryllis, went down in a catastrophic storm. Since that time he has been afraid of the vastness of the ocean while his mother, the hardened woman Geneva Reade, has waited patiently for a sign from her drowned husband. When Jenny comes to stay with Geneva for a couple weeks, she thinks she's just going to do some chores and play by the seaside. Instead, she becomes enmeshed in a wild adventure. For while Geneva's husband does indeed send his wife a sign, the sea is not happy with the gift and demands it back. By force, as it happens.

Reading this book, I found it was rather similar to "Daughter of the Sea" by Berlie Doherty. Both books praise the ocean to no end, but if I were to choose the stronger of the two, "The Eyes of the Amaryllis" wins hands down. Babbitt's in fine form here. The reader begins the tale with as much healthy skepticism as Jenny herself, and ends up believing her grandmother's wild stories just as the heroine does. There are beautiful descriptive passages here and a wonderfully exciting climax with a hurricane. There are ghosts, drowned men, and mysterious presents that are never meant to be kept. I've little doubt that Babbitt herself has spent a lot of time with the ocean. This book is a love story to a powerful, dangerous thing.

For those readers who enjoyed "Tuck Everlasting" and wouldn't mind a little more Babbitty weirdness in their reading diet, "The Eyes of the Amaryllis" is a fine follow-up. It's not particularly long (so reluctant readers will rejoice) and the plot is fast-paced without ever feeling stilted. For any kid who hungers for tales of ghosts and mysteries, go no farther than this fog-swept tale.

In 6th grade my favorite teacher had our class read my favorite book, The Eyes of the Amaryllis. I liked this book so much that I told my best friend (in another class) that she had to read it. She did and she loved it. And to my teacher's surprise my whole class loved it too! This book will stick with you forever once you read it. The Eyes of the Amaryllis will keep you reading until you finish, and once you finish you will be in awe of what a wonderful book this is! I LOVE this book!

"Your grandfather and I- what we felt for each other just doesn't stop."

Jenny (named Geneva after her grandmother) must go to live with her grandmother while a broken leg is on the mend. She uproots herself from a quiet life in Springfield to relocate to the seaside, in an old house that her father was raised in that has remained unchanged since an eventful date 30 years prior. Her feisty, yet stubborn, grandmother has only one thing in mind, to reconnect in some way with her husband who perished at sea 3 decades earlier.

At first Jenny is ambivalent about her grandmother and the home, knowing that her father left after his father's death has left some presupposed opinions of the life she leads here. Daily Geneva makes Jenny search the tide, desperately seeking some sign from her long dead husband that he is coming for her. Soon rumours of men who walk the shore and other oddities reach Jenny's ears and she begins to wonder if her stubborn grandmother has a good reason to be so, especially when a storm brings exactly what Geneva has been longing for, a sign from her husband.

Written by Newbery Honoree Natalie Babbitt "Amaryllis" is a wonderful tale of longing and the human heart. I still prefer "Tuck Everlasting", but I am quickly becoming such a fan of Babbitt's that I believe every child should read her work. She has wonderful tidbits of morality and the human condition peppered throughout her narratives, and morality tales have always been a huge favourite of mine. I recommend the "Amaryllis" to anyone who enjoys tales of the sea, of love, and a life devoted to loss.

"Like things in fairy tales?"
"No, child. I mean - that all the daily things we do, and all the things we can touch and see in this world, are only one part of what's there, and that there's another world all around us all the time that's mostly hidden from us."
- the two Geneva Reades, herein

"'A brig, [the Amaryllis] was, a big two-master. A beautiful thing to see. Your grandfather owned her, and he was her captain, too. He sailed her up and down the coast from Maine to the Caribbean.'
'Did you ever go along?'
'No, I never did. Women aren't welcome on trading ships, you know...and yet in a way I did go along. Look more closely there. Do you see the figurehead? ...It's a likeness of me. That's an amaryllis I'm holding. A big red lily from the islands.'"
- the two Geneva Reades, herein

"Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it."
- Song of Solomon 8:7

For thirty years, Jenny Reade's grandmother has lived alone, refusing all her son's offers to make a new home with him, away from the sea that swallowed his father's ship, the _Amaryllis_, within sight of the house when he was only a boy. For the elder Geneva Reade wanted no other life than the one she'd had with the Captain, and she couldn't accept that it was over. She has kept vigil alone, walking the beach at every high tide, waiting for some relic of the _Amaryllis_ to be washed ashore. But it isn't just chance she puts her faith in...

The week before the story opens, Gran broke her ankle, and now her granddaughter Jenny is finally being allowed to spend a few weeks by the sea her father still fears as an ever-present reminder of his father's death. Gran finally lets Jenny into her confidence, because although she can still look after herself, she can't keep up her twice-daily searches without help.

THE EYES OF THE AMARYLLIS is set in the nineteenth century, in the age of sail, although since it is so taken up with that timeless element, the sea, the story doesn't date much except when Gran and Jenny sometimes go through Gran's treasures, small and sometimes gaudy things brought from ports far away by the Captain long ago, or the occasional intrusions from the outside world.

I've always liked this story, and now that I pause to consider *why* I like it, there are a number of reasons that I can't always explain. The writing is beautiful, while being very clear. The characters and their relationships are complex, with shades of grey that Jenny can't help noticing. Her Gran's fierce love and deep faith in her husband are very fine, and her strength and determination are like rock itself, but she chose to let her son go when he couldn't handle living with the sea as an ever-present reminder of witnessing his father's death. They love each other, but have a troubled relationship.

Also, this isn't a simple, linear plot - there's also the story of Nicholas, who was like a surrogate elder son to the Reades, the sculptor who carved the _Amaryllis_' figurehead, and was lost at sea not long after the ship went down. His story, too, is a bit of fine characterization when Gran finally tells it - and Jenny, being young, sees it as a romantic tragedy, while Gran sees it simply as a terrible, foolish waste.

And not least, there's the open question of what to believe about Gran's long vigil by the sea, and what mysteries the sea might hold. The mysterious human guardian of the sea, Seward - will he interfere? It's a particularly good touch that Seward isn't painted as either good or evil, and neither is the sea - they're both mysterious forces, not properly understood, and in some ways perhaps beyond understanding.

"This place, this house - she saw more clearly than ever, now, that it stood at the edge of another world, at the edge where the things she understood and the things beyond her understanding began to merge and blur. That other world - it brought on transformations, and its blurring edge was marked by the hemline of the sea."
- herein

We just completed reading this book in our third grade reading group, at an independent school in Brooklyn Heights, NY. Say the students, "It was the best book we ever read in reading group."
I also found it amazing--so many themes, including the line between fantasy and reality, between the living and the dead, the sea and the land--memory, moving on after a great loss.
This is not a "kid's" book at all--it's equally enjoyable for all ages. I highly recommend, as do my remarkable students.

The mysterious and powerful sea drive a grandmother and her granddaughter through some unusual experiences, while waiting for a sign from those lost-at-sea on The Amaryllis. This book shows the vulnerability of those who lose a loved one and how hope can direct one's behavior in ways that can't be explained with logic. Babbitt's story leads you to root for that sign from the sea, just like the characters.

This is by far the best book Natalie Babbitt has written. Her use of descriptive writing is superb. When Gran reveals the secret about Seward to Jenny, the story really takes off. This is a must read for all who love the Sea and its powerful and mysterious ways. It is also a great book because by its conclusion, the story helps one to understand the "generation gap" and bond between children, parents and grandparents.

I received this book sooner than expected and in the condition promised. It is for a reading project for my granddaughter at school, so I was glad to get the book so reasonably priced. We can use it as a textbook and underline/highlight as needed. Awesome!!