When Emily Windsnap and her parents arrive at their new home in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle, she hopes she can fit in with the mermaids there better than she did with her classmates at Brightport High. Half-human, half-mermaid herself, she wants to make an impression on her new friends, but instead awakens a deadly kraken, angers King Neptune and endangers them all. Neptune hopes to put the kraken back to work sinking human ships; his first target carries Emily's long-time enemy, Mandy Rushton. Occasionally, Mandy interrupts Emily's story; the change of narrator is indicated by a new typeface, and a jarring shift to present tense. Neither Emily nor Mandy are developed enough to account for their change of heart at the end, but the action moves briskly, with a satisfying amount of underwater description and much attention to varied tail styles. The imaginative premise will intrigue readers and the suspense will be enough to keep them reading to the happy ending and perhaps send them back to Emily's first story, The Tail of Emily Windsnap (2004). (Fiction. 9-12)

Gr 4-6-Emily is ecstatic. In The Tail of Emily Windsnap (Candlewick, 2004), she learns that she is a mermaid and reunites her human mother with her merman father. Now, the happy family is going to live together on an island smack dab in the center of the Bermuda Triangle. King Neptune himself has designated Allpoints Island as a safe place where humans and merfolk can coexist in peace. Even better, Emily's mermaid buddy Shona is moving to the island as well. Unfortunately, Emily is still feeling a little different as she is the only half-human/half-mermaid hybrid she knows. In an attempt to impress the others, she unwittingly unleashes a monster sleeping at the heart of the island. To put it to rest, she must now face not only her fears but also her old rival from middle school, Mandy Rushton. Constantly shying away from taking responsibility for her actions, Emily opts for the path of least resistance time and again, only stopping the murderous kraken when forced to do so. The book comes across as overly simplistic much of the time and relies too heavily on coincidence and some unbelievably cheery endings. Just the same, mermaid lovers everywhere will undoubtedly enjoy this story. Consider purchase if the first book is popular.-Elizabeth Bird, New York Public Library Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

In this sequel to The Tail of Emily Windsnap (2004), Emily is a girl on land and a mermaid in the water. Anxious to impress her friends, Emily accepts their challenge to venture into a forbidden underwater cave. But what began as a harmless adventure ends in disaster when Emily awakens the monster Kracken. Williams reads in a British accent, subtly altering her voice to differentiate between characters. The story is told from the alternating voices of Emily and her friend Mandy. Williams shifts between the two voices, saying the letter M to designate Mandy's perspective. The girls sound very similar, and their differences are identifiable only by their dissimilar views. Therefore, listeners need to rely on text clues and their understanding of the characters rather than Williams' performance to discern who is speaking. This sea fantasy will appeal mainly to fans of the series.

In this sequel to The Tail of Emily Windsnap, Emily wakes an undersea monster, threatening the world's safety and her family's happiness. Despite an imaginative setup, Kessler's story of mermaid peer pressure and pre-teen friendship is unengaging. Emily's motives are too shallow to elicit sympathy, her problems too simple to build interest. Black-and-white spot art illustrates each chapter.