Annie Lumsden is not like other 13 year-old girls. She is a little different. She doesn’t understand things that make sense to other children her age. Her mother is an artist and loves to tell Annie tales. She spins a somewhat “true” story about Annie and her dad and the sea being a big part of her life. I would recommend this for any collection owning other books by this author. He does a great job of explaining things and letting the reader know that it is okay to be different and that is what makes us all unique. Annie is a likeable girl with a wonderful role model in her mother. The water color illustrations add a whimsical aspect to the story. ( )

This is such a sweet book. I think some of the messages in it had more impact on me than on my 7yo daughter, but I loved the nuance and the tone of it, and how there were some mature ideas that weren't glossed over but were presented on a child-appropriate level. I loved the idea of Annie accepting that she's different, and that maybe she's not different for supernatural reasons but that believing in herself is what makes the difference between different-weird and different-special. ( )

Like all of David Almond’s stories, the tale of Annie Lumsden, the girl from the sea, is a touch strange, but with an underlying sweetness. Annie is a touch strange herself, finding school a challenge, but finding solace in seemingly having more in common with the creatures who live in the sea near which she makes her home. Narrating her own story, Annie’s language is full of ocean-inspired imagery as she describes herself and her surroundings, immediately leading the reader to understand Annie’s innate difference from the regular world. Annie seems to struggle to truly tell her own story, though, as she is just a child seeing the world with limited understanding, but when her mother tells her an extraordinary tale regarding Annie’s inception her truth begins to unravel. Whether Annie is a creature from the sea is undecided by the end of the tale (photographic evidence seems to prove the case, yet her doctors seem to think otherwise), but that doesn’t seem to matter to Annie, her mother, or to us readers. She has found an explanation that makes sense to her about her weird and wonderful nature, one which her widely open child’s imagination reckons is a truth more true than simple modern viewpoints. ( )

Annie Lumsdenm The Girl from the Sea is a story about a girl who doesn't fit in - but more importantly it is about a girl with a learning disability. This book was excellent and it is important to have these books available so that every child can find a book that they can see themselves in. Representation matters.

The illustrations are also beautiful. I love the water-colour and pen drawings that bring this book to life.

Thank you to Candlewick Press and LibraryThing Early Reviewers for the review copy of this book. ( )