A review by mat_tobin
Annie Lumsden, the Girl from the Sea by David Almond
3.0
As with most of Almond's stories, this is a tale whose liminality crosses between the reader asking what is and is not real and how much belief they have within and without in travelling between those spaces. At the centre of the liminal space, standing between sand and sea, myth and reality and school and home is Anne Lumsden who lives with her mum in the northeast of England.
Beset by seizures in her teenage years and mocked by her classmates for her learning difficulties, Annie has always felt like she does not fit in and feels closer to the sea and its denizens than people. Her mother, who is creative and caring and deeply loving, weaves stories around her daughter to make her happy and smile. One day, Annie wishes for a fantastical story of her birth and, asking her mum to make it magical, discovers that her heritage and home might be more mysterious than her mother was initially letting on.
A novella brimming with mystery and waves of questions and sumptuously illustrated by Alemagna, it is a tale that celebrates the fantasies and truths that stories can hold.
Beset by seizures in her teenage years and mocked by her classmates for her learning difficulties, Annie has always felt like she does not fit in and feels closer to the sea and its denizens than people. Her mother, who is creative and caring and deeply loving, weaves stories around her daughter to make her happy and smile. One day, Annie wishes for a fantastical story of her birth and, asking her mum to make it magical, discovers that her heritage and home might be more mysterious than her mother was initially letting on.
A novella brimming with mystery and waves of questions and sumptuously illustrated by Alemagna, it is a tale that celebrates the fantasies and truths that stories can hold.