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Keeper [Hardcover]

Kathi Appelt , August Hall
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)

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Book Description

May 18, 2010 8 and up 770L (What's this?)
Keeper was born in the ocean, and she believes she is part mermaid. So as a ten-year-old she goes out looking for her mother—an unpredictable and uncommonly gorgeous woman who swam away when Keeper was three—and heads right for the ocean, right for the sandbar where mermaids are known to gather. But her boat is too small for the surf—and much too small for the storm that is brewing on the horizon.

Kathi Appelt follows her award-winning and New York Times bestselling novel The Underneath with this stunning, mysterious, and breathtaking tale of a girl who outgrows fairy tales just a little too late—and learns in the end that there is nothing more magical and mythical than love itself.


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Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Grade 4-7 Ten-year-old Keeper believes in wishes and magic, and why shouldn't she? Her mother, gone for the last seven years, is a mermaid, after all! So on the day of the Blue Moon, when everything she does has a disastrous result, Keeper knows her only option is to row out past the sandbar to the treacherous open water of the Gulf of Mexico, accompanied by BD (Best Dog) and Captain the seagull, and hope her mermaid mama can tell her how to fix things. Keeper is funny, feisty, at times older than her years, and often so stubborn that readers will have to shake their heads. In other words, quite realistic. The adults in the story are beautifully drawn, and absolutely believable, and the Gulf Coast setting is practically a character itself. The tender romance between two teenaged boys years earlier is hinted at, and it is sensitively portrayed, as is the romance between Keeper's guardian, Signe, and the damaged former soldier, Dogie. Filled with love, wild adventure, family drama, and even a touch of true fantasy, this is a deeply satisfying tale. Mara Alpert, Los Angeles Public Library
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Rare is the middle-grade book with an epigraph from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, but that famous poem's sense of longing is well suited to this thoughtful story. Ten-year-old Keeper lives on the Texas coast with her guardian and a small, close community of people and animals, who have all been looking forward to the next blue moon and the traditions and happiness they expect will come with it. Instead, the community experiences a string of disappointing events, and Keeper, feeling responsible, sails away to find her birth mother, whom she believes is a mermaid capable of making everything right. After being tossed about by the sea, Keeper makes it safely back to shore, though any growth in her wisdom and awareness that occurs during the story's 24-hour span is left unclear. Occasional, hazy illustrations add to the mythical mood. A complex plot structure, varying points of view, subtle symbolism, and allusions to classics, from Lewis Carroll's Alice stories to old sea legends, make for a literary exploration of the search for love and meaning that will absorb and reward patient, thoughtful readers. Grades 4-7. --Andrew Medlar

Product Details

  • Age Range: 8 and up
  • Hardcover: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers; 1 edition (May 18, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1416950605
  • ISBN-13: 978-1416950608
  • Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5.2 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #649,936 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Keeper is a ten-year old girl living on the edge of the Gulf of Mexico in Texas. Keeper's mother, Meggie Marie, left her when she was a child so she lives with a young woman named Signe. Signe told Keeper that her mother was a mermaid and went back to the sea after Keeper was born. So Keeper grows up believing in mermaids and fairytales. She thinks she's a special girl with special mermaid abilities.

The book opens with Keeper being very excited for the coming evening. Everything is supposed to go perfectly that night, the night of a rare blue moon. Signe will make her blue moon gumbo; their neighbor Mr. Beauchamp will see his night flowers bloom and be done waiting for the boy he once loved to find him again; and Dogie from down the beech will sing his two-word song to Signe. But Keeper messes it all up. Wracked with guilt Keeper turns to the only person who can help her, her mother, Meggie Marie the mermaid. Desperate to find her mother so she can fix everything, Keeper embarks on an ocean-bound journey and gets swept away into danger and desperation.

Keeper reads as a children's book should read, simple language, pictures to enhance the imagination, a fun story with adventure and a little girl who doesn't know better. But underneath the fairytale of talking crabs and seagulls who eat watermelon are adult topics. Unwed mothers who abandon their children, a scary birth scene in the middle of the ocean, age and death, a veteran traumatized from his experience in the war, and love that doesn't necessarily meet everyone elses expectations. These are real-world scenarios placed in a children's book and I can't imagine an eight year old, no matter how mature, understanding some of the more difficult themes.

Another detail that makes Keeper more than a children's book is the narrative. The storytelling isn't linear; it doesn't follow a set arc. We are with Keeper on her journey, and then we flashback to what happened to Signe when she ran away from home, and where Mr. Beauchamp lived when he was younger, and what happened to Dogie to make him stutter the way he does. Beautiful literary themes all of them, but I do caution anyone who wants to get this book for their child that they should expect some question-and-answer sessions to follow.

I loved Keeper for containing the topics it did, for being mature and expecting more from a child reader. For containing hints of Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky (Oh frabjous day, calloo callay!). And like Lewis Carroll's works, I loved it for being a tad dark and ominous. It doesn't patronize to the younger audience, it exposes the fact that the world we live in is not a fairytale and that's okay. Through the childlike language is a story about a group of people who care for each other, individually unique humans, tragically brought together, but living happily in the "world unto itself."
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars askagaydad about Keeper October 3, 2010
Format:Hardcover
Being a gay dad of 4 children, 5,6, 10 and 13, I can tell you that this a beautiful book, an engaging story and yes children will "get" the love between the boys. It will not frighten them as indeed love should not, they will not be confused by it or be unable to process it. Children will process it on the level at which they are at. My kids will recognize love. Other children may be blinded by their parents prejudice. However, while love is the central theme of this story, it's also a story about adoption, forgiveness, family, and about believing. I too cried when I read it. "Keep her", she whimpered, "I was suppose to keep her". Read on.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
First, the multilayered aspect is quite gorgeous. There is a lot of deliberate repetition (e.g., the refrain of Stupid Crabs!) and the same events are often told from multiple points of view (including the animals' point of view). It is a book to be read more than once simply to appreciate the author's craft.

But who is the ideal reader? A child or an adult?

The book is recommended for grades 4-7. However, my nephew is a reluctant reader who is about to enter 6th grade, and I do not believe he would "get" this book anytime soon. Note that the Booklist review calls it "a literary exploration of the search for love and meaning that will absorb and reward patient, thoughtful readers." Whether or not they SHOULD be, are kids that age patient and thoughtful? Will they really be willing to invest in what boils down to a somewhat slow story? Or are they looking for an action-packed adventure like Nim's Island? If kids can't get hooked on a book, they aren't going to benefit from it, no matter how well written and lovely it may be.

Teachers should acquire a copy and decide for themselves. Keeper would certainly be a fantastic way to show how multiple genres can be combined into a complete piece of writing. For example, one chapter contains only a short poem. Later chapters, at the climax, simply contain the word Keeper (with the letters drawn out). Young writers will benefit from exposure to this sort of variety in a text.

At the same time, I'm not sure what to make of the love story between the two boys. It seems a bit forced: "let's add a little surprise and diversity and modern acceptance of all forms of love." I have gay friends, but I found this plot twist, which appears late in the story, distracting, even though I believe the intention was simply to expand the idea of love. I'm not sure what young readers will think of it: that the men are just friends? Maybe; in fact, all of the adult love in the book has a flat, platonic feel to it. It's hard to know what the author intended to achieve.

The bottom line: Parents and teachers may want to read Keeper before handing it to their kids, so they are prepared for any questions that arise. Because it is an interesting story that is extremely well crafted---particularly for adults who love good writing and can appreciate the multiple layers---I give it four stars.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars Please do not buy this book
I was deeply disappointed with this book. The way the author writes captured me from the get go and I became very interested in the story. Read more
Published 4 days ago by Godchaser
3.0 out of 5 stars keeper
keeper was a vry interesting book, it was written very well. i loved every part exept for when keeper took her dog in the ocean without any comfort. Read more
Published 4 months ago by L. A. Atkins
5.0 out of 5 stars A story of love
Love comes in many forms - and this story is about recognizing the love that surrounds us. Love goes far beyond what "blood relatives" can provide.
Published 6 months ago by Elizabeth H Duff
5.0 out of 5 stars Worth a read
Keeper, a ten-year-old girl, lives in a beach town with Signe, a friend of her mother's. Her mother disappeared years before. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Sue Poduska
5.0 out of 5 stars Try it on audio tape
Keeper was a huge hit for me (45), my mother(77) and my two children, 8 and 10. My son picked it out because he liked the cover and my daughter heard the word mermaid and she was... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Janet A. Williams
5.0 out of 5 stars not bad fpr kids
i am only in 5th grade and keeper was in the library as a 5th grade level. Mermaids were always my favorite thing and I cannot belive they aren't real. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Brittany Jackson
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Book
This is one of the most beautiful and inspiring books that I have ever read!
The concept of family, love, and growing up melt into one prose-type storyline. Read more
Published 17 months ago by L. DeVore
3.0 out of 5 stars nicely written
A lovely written book by a previous Newbery award winner. The book is big and meandering, but it could be great for kids who want a book about, well, a kid but also want a more... Read more
Published on May 18, 2011 by Miss Print
1.0 out of 5 stars Disjointed, Insidious (Therefore Dishonest), Disappointing
As a mother who screens everything her 11 year-old daughter reads, I was thrilled to find a new book about mermaids on the market, and one which detailed aspects of surfers, too,... Read more
Published on March 31, 2011 by M. Lee
3.0 out of 5 stars Not sure this is a kid's book, really...
This is the story of a ten year old child being raised by a friend of her mother's. It is also the story of their tiny community. Read more
Published on March 30, 2011 by L. Forrest
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