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Title: The Sea Egg by Lucy Maria Boston ISBN: 0-15-271050-7 Publisher: Harcourt Pub. Date: 01 June, 1967 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (3 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: "I Leave Them for an Evening; They're Older when I get Back"
Comment: Lucy Boston, best known for her "Green Knowe" series takes a different turn here in writing "The Sea Egg" by introducing two new children and setting the story at the sea side. Toby and Jo are two brothers on holiday with their parents. They've made friends with the lobster man who sells polished shells for extra money. At the beginning of this story he shows them his latest find - a smooth perfectly egg-shaped stone that the two boys instantly feel they have to own.
With the stone purchased, they take it away to their secret rock pool and sure enough, the next day whilst seal-watching, they see what looks like a young boy amongst the seals - a young boy with fish tails! From there comes a slow easy narrative about the visits the boys spend with the triton - a sunny day at the rock pools, shell-collecting on a small island and an evocative moonlight swim, before storms on the shore force the family inland - but not without one final call from their triton friend.
Like all Boston books the narrative is strange: more interested in being poetic and deep than creating a morale or in character development. However, if you are already familiar with Boston's books, then there's no surprises here. Her language is utterly beautiful in creating the many moods and tones of the ocean, and the moonlight swim in particular reads like verse.
The triton's origins are clear: in Boston's home there was (and I presume, still is) a Roman bust of a young boy titled "triton", and appeared in another of her books "Guardians of the House". He is clearly the star of the story, and his mischievious smile and playful antics are exactly what one would suspect from a sea-creature. Despite Toby seeming a bit more imaginative than Jo, the boys are basically clones of each other, but with surprisingly sympathetic parents for a fantasy novel (usually in this genre all grown-ups are antagonists). However, she is spot-on with some of the things the boys get up to - watch out especially for the scene when they con money out of their parents and when they sneak home in the middle of the night right under their babysitter's nose - they're hilarious!
All in all "The Sea Egg" is a rather strange book, with a dreamy story and a somewhat abrupt end. Boston's beautiful prose prevents it from becoming an Enid Blyton-type 'boys-meet-magical-creature' story, and as usual her son Peter Boston's illustrations (that use sillhouettes and cross-hatching to suggest light, beings and water) are mysterious to behold.
Rating: 5
Summary: I still remember this book after 25 years...
Comment: I read this book as a young child and was captivated by it. After at least 25 years, I now want my son to read it and experience its magic.
Rating: 4
Summary: A friendly book
Comment: I loved this book because of the merman, who is energetic and fun. The book makes you feel as if you love the sea more than anything.
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