This wide-eyed, magical tale by distinguished author Alice Hoffman reflects the pale blue hue of two 12-year-old friends about to be parted at summer's end. Hailey and Claire have lived next door to each other and have been best friends all their lives, but now Claire's family is going to move away to Florida. The two hang out at the neighborhood beach club in the blistering heat, dreading the end of things. The Capri Beach Club, too, is coming to an end--neglected and shabby, due to be bulldozed at the end of the season. Despite the girls' fear of change, everything shifts with a summer storm. At the beach club the next morning, Hailey and Claire find that the storm has left its mark, filling the cloudy waters of the swimming pool with jellyfish and seaweed. Hailey boldly dives in and discovers that the waves have also brought a delicate blue and white mermaid who is extremely grouchy at her predicament. The girls scheme to return the fish-woman to the sea, but she obstinately refuses to leave the vicinity of Raymond, the handsome boy who runs the gift shop. Alarmed at the mermaid's growing weakness, Hailey and Claire extract her promise to go back to the sea in exchange for one evening with Raymond. They set up a blind date, dress her in a long blue dress to hide her tail, and take her to the rendezvous in a wheelchair. But the next morning the dying mermaid is in love, and the patio is full of partygoers. Can the girls sneak her past all those eyes to save her life? And will she let them? Young teens will be entranced by the strange dreaminess of this poignant little story about love and loss. (Ages 10 to 14) --Patty Campbell
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From School Library Journal
Gr 5-6-Hailey and Claire, along with Raymond the snack-counter guy, are the only people who spend time at the Capri Beach Club, which has fallen on hard times. The best friends are ruefully counting down the days until Claire moves to Florida with her grandparents. When a storm washes a bad-mannered mermaid named Aquamarine into the club pool, she falls in love with Raymond and begs the girls to help her win his heart. They agree, on the condition that she returns to the sea after her "date" with him. This book has some wonderful elements-there is some vivid imagery, especially when it comes to the setting, with its waves of heat and air of decay. There are also some lovely balances between the girls as they gradually exchange roles as either brave or clever, and they seem to take turns accepting the girl who will inevitably move in next door. Unfortunately, the narration puts too much space between readers and the story, leaving them unengaged. There is also the more practical question of why the beach club is still open even though Claire and Hailey are the only two who come each day. Finally, one of the things that Hoffman seems to do best in her adult novels is leisurely create characters that can walk right out of the story. She doesn't have the time or space here to do that and the result, sadly, is a very boring mermaid and two dull girls suffering from separation anxiety.-Patricia A. Dollisch, DeKalb County Public Library, Decatur, GA
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Gr. 4-7. Teens enjoy many of Hoffman's adult novels, which often focus on young women. Her first book for middle-graders is about 12-year-old girls, Hailey and Claire, who have been neighbors and best friends forever. They don't want anything to change, but as the searing summer draws to a close, Claire has to move to Florida, and the bulldozers are closing in on the girls' beloved hangout near the ocean. Then they find a beautiful mermaid, Aquamarine, huddled in the beach pool. They send her home to her ocean sisters, but first they help her find love and adventure with the handsome guy who works in the snack bar. Of course, in helping the stranger, the girls transform themselves and face the changes in their lives. What's great here is Aquamarine. She's is no romantic forsaken damsel: she's a rude, rebellious teenager, as needy as those who help her. In this small, spacious book, Hoffman's spare words reveal the magic and the gritty realism in daily life, "somewhere between laughter and a wave breaking." Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"Hoffman creates an apt metaphor for that twilight time between childhood and adolescence when magic still seems possible and friendships run deep and true." -- Publishers Weekly"Hoffman's spare words reveal the magic and the gritty realism in daily life." -- Booklist
"Hoffman creates an apt metaphor for that twilight time between childhood and adolescence when magic still seems possible and friendships run deep and true." -- Publishers Weekly"Hoffman's spare words reveal the magic and the gritty realism in daily life." -- Booklist --This text refers to the paperback edition. From the Author
Dear Reader, In the summer when I was twelve, my best friend Carol and I spent every day together at a beach club, dropped off in the mornings and picked up again at night. In many ways, it was a miraculous summer, the season that separated our lives from the children we had been to the teenagers we were about to become. It was a time when everything was more than it ever had been before: the sky more blue, the sea more green, our own tears more salty, our joys more blissful. Anything seemed possible. Our whole lives were open to us, at least for that singular summer. Not long afterward, Carol's family moved away, and although we feared for our friendship, much as the girls in Aquamarine do, we discovered that real friendship can last.
I still believe what we experience from the ages of ten to fourteen stays with us with unmatched intensity. For this reason, I wanted to write for this age group, and Aquamarine's story began as a tale told to my own son while we floated in a turquoise pool one hot summer day. It had been a difficult time for our family. My sister-in-law, Jo Ann, who had been my dear friend from the time we were nineteen, was battling brain cancer. As she grew weaker she lost the ability to walk, and then to move at all. She became taken with mermaids, those beautiful creatures who have no need of legs or of the air we breathe. We brought Jo Ann mermaid jewelry and mermaid mobiles and mermaid postcards, and now, at last, I bring to her memory the story of Aquamarine, who, like Jo Ann, hasn't the ability to live in our everyday world.
Some things live forever however, love and friendship among them. And some summers stay with you forever, as well. Here is the story of a mermaid found by two best friends who will clearly never lose one another.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. About the Author
Alice Hoffman is the highly acclaimed author of over twenty novels for readers of all ages, including Illumination Night, Seventh Heaven, Practical Magic, Here on Earth, The Foretelling, Incantation, and, most recently, The Story Sisters and The Red Garden. Her previous novels for Scholastic Press are Aquamarine, which was made into a major motion picture, Indigo, and Green Angel, which Publishers Weekly, in a boxed, starred review, called "achingly lovely." She lives with her family outside of Boston. Visit her at www.alicehoffman.com. --This text refers to the paperback edition. 
![Aquamarine by [Alice Hoffman]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/517blYeIjKL._SY346_.jpg)
