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Island Eyes


"The sound of the sea is in you, and it has to come out." -Maggie Island Eyes by Laney Lee Fun Fact; Almost all of Mars has been charted, yet less than 90% of the ocean has been explored. The sea is full of mysteries. Is there life on Mars? Martians? Probably not, but who says there aren't strange unknown creatures swimming around us. However exciting the sparkling ocean depths are, this is not what this book is about. This book does explore the oceans, but at a shallower place that we do know of, a place near the shore. This book shows us how exciting the sea is through one of its own inhabitants. The narrator has an interesting origin. He was born in the mud with a creature inside him. Not many people can say that. That is because the narrator isn't human. Our narrator is a shell. Not a creature that lives inside of it, but a literal shell. In this pleasant and adventurous book, Lee disproves that shells are boring and simply float around on currents until they are either smashed or collected. Some shells might do just that, but this Melongena corona, King's Crown shell is far from boring. When the shells creature is sucked out of him he gets lonely and lives an ordinary life until he meets a buccaneer born from the ocean. Maggie, the hermit crab is looking for a new home since she has outgrown her last shell, and find the narrator to be ship-shape. With a "yo ho ho" and no rum they scuttle off to have real pirate adventures. The team of Maggie and the shell(who she named matey) are ready to rock the ocean with their jolly roger flag safely stowed in the first mate who doubles as the ship. In this pleasant book Lee uses perfect personification to portray the wonders of the ocean and shoreline in an exciting adventure. The life of a shell is more exciting than it appears. Matey will face a big grumpy crab, the tide, and even a crook! With a unique narrator this book remains to be original and charming. It is a pirates adventure from the perspective of a real ocean salt. So, open this book and rocket around the ocean with Matey and Maggie, face the terrors of the ocean, and have a fun look through the island's eyes. Savvy?

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