A spellbinding magical adventure. Master storyteller Helen Dunmore writes the story of Sapphire and her brother Conor, and their discovery of INGO, a powerful and exciting world under the sea. You'll find the mermaid of Zennor inside Zennor church. She fell in love with a human, but she was a Mer creature and so she couldn't come to live with him up in the dry air. She swam up the stream to hear him sing, then one day he swam down it and was never seen again. He became one of the Mer people! Sapphire's father told her that story when she was little. When he is lost at sea she can't help but think of that old myth; she's convinced he's still alive. The following summer her brother Conor keeps disappearing for hours on end. She goes to the cove to find him, but instead meets Faro, an enigmatic and intriguing Merman. He takes her to Ingo and introduces her to a world she never knew existed. She must let go of all her Air thoughts and embrace the sea and all things Mer. After her first visit she is entranced -- merely the sound of running water makes her yearn to be in Ingo once more. Ingo blood runs strongly in Sapphy and Conor fears she will leave the Air world for good. He pleads with her to ignore her craving for the sea and stay safely in their cottage up on the cliff. But not only is Sapphy intoxicated by the Mer world, she longs to see her father once more. And she's sure she can hear him singing across the water! "I wish I was away in Ingo Far across the briny sea!"

About the Author

Helen Dunmore is a poet, novelist and children's writer. She has published eight collections of poetry. The Sea Skater won The Poetry Society's Alice Hunt Bartlett Award, The Raw Garden was a Poetry Book Society Choice, and her collection of poems for children, Secrets, won the Signal Award for Poetry. To date she has published eight novels and two collections of short stories. Of these, Zennor in Darkness won the McKitterick Prize, and A Spell of Winter won the inaugural Orange Prize for Fiction. Her most recent novel, The Siege, was published in 2001. It was shortlisted for both the Orange Prize for Fiction, and the Whitbread Prize for Fiction, and was serialised on BBC Radio 4. Her writing for children includes short stories, novels for older children, and poetry. Helen travels extensively to read and lecture both in the UK and abroad, in countries as diverse as Morocco, Hong Kong, Romania and the USA, and has undertaken several tours with the British Council. She reviews fiction, and contributes to BBC radio poetry and features programmes. Helen Dunmore is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a member of the board of the Society of Authors.

Prizes

/ Key title A spellbinding magical adventure. Master storyteller Helen Dunmore writes the story of Sapphire and her brother Conor, and their discovery of INGO, a powerful and exciting world under the sea. / First of a major trilogy from award-winning master storyteller Helen Dunmore / Wonderfully captivating story based on the Cornish legend 'the Mermaid of Zennor' / Marketing and publicity campaign to focus on Helen Dunmore's cross-market appeal by targeting both children and adults / Awareness of Ingo high in schools with direct to consumer activity surrounding the launch of the Hardback / Will be featured in all major summer reading promotions

Reviews

Gr 5-9-A family living on the coast of Cornwall gets caught up in the undersea kingdom of the Mer people. After their father mysteriously disappears, Sapphy and her brother, Conor, visit Ingo and find themselves yearning to return to the ocean world. Conor resists, but Sapphy has a stronger affinity with the watery kingdom. While she struggles with its temptation, she also clashes with her mother, who seems too ready to forget the children's father. These elements come together in an exciting climax in which the siblings risk traveling to Ingo to save the life of the human diver their mother is dating. Sapphy's present-tense narration brings readers right into her world. Through her eyes, they see the beauty of Ingo, the comfort of her earthbound home, and the confusing muddle of thoughts and emotions that her experiences inspire. The undersea world seems equal parts menacing and alluring, which builds suspense and keeps everything pleasingly unpredictable. Relationships are especially well drawn. Sapphy is dedicated to Conor, despite some jealousy; she loves her mother, though she's keenly aware of how different they are; and she is not sure how to feel about Faro, the charming, sometimes angry young Mer man who serves as her undersea guide. Strong character development combines with an engaging plot and magical elements to make this a fine choice for fantasy readers, who will look forward to the next installments in this planned trilogy.-Steven Engelfried, Beaverton City Library, OR Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

"... the lyrical writing and Dunmore's intense sympathy with and for all she describes make this a perfect book with which to wind up the summer holidays, or to recollect them." Amanda Craig, The Times

Dunmore's (The Siege, for adults) richly imagined fantasy, her first for young adults, posits tension between two parallel worlds: one undersea, the other along the rocky Cornwall coast. Sapphire, 11, and her older brother, Conor, have grown up in a close-knit family, loving the tidal cove below their cottage. Their father, Mathew, a fisherman and photographer, adores the sea; on the other hand, their mother has, in her words, "good reason to fear" it. When Dad disappears, and part of his boat is found, the family holds a memorial service and moves painfully through grief. Even a year after his disappearance, Sapphy and Conor refuse to believe their father is dead, while their mother begins to move on, befriending a visiting diver. Mer children Faro and Elvira begin to court the siblings, introducing them to such marvels as breathing underwater and swimming with dolphins. Ingo, the undersea world about which their father sang, beckons overpoweringly, and Sapphy, who is drawn back there repeatedly, begins to understand the Mer language. A wise beekeeper, whom some suspect is a witch, seems to know Mathew's fate. She subtly intercedes as Sapphy vacillates, "cleft" between her Mer and Air identities, and also suggests that Ingo is "breaking its bounds," intruding into the Air world. Dunmore makes both settings riveting, and captures Sapphy's lonely struggle through the heroine's first-person narrative. Dualities skepticism and belief, collective memory and individual perception, the pull of Mer life versus Sapphy's family love persist to the tale's end and beyond. Ages 10-up. (Sept.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.