Key Stage: KS2
Subject area: Health and Wellbeing
Key themes: Myth and legend, rivalry

- Publisher: Graffeg,

“One in a series of tales that explore the deeper, darker side of our connection with the natural world. Be ready to feel a little bit of magic, and perhaps a few shivers down the spine,” the back cover promises its readers.

This is a story about the power of the sea. Two of the fishermen brothers are found in the opening pages eating and drinking in ‘old Mother Cary’s place, The Butter Knife’. This might well spell trouble, for as every well-read sailor knows, Mother Carey (or Cary) is a supernatural figure who personifies the cruel and dangerous sea, upon which his livelihood depends.

And trouble there is – for out of the night appears a swanky car ‘with paint as pale and neat as a scallop shell’, and out of this low-slung car appears a tall ancient man,‘with eyes ‘blue-green, like a backlit wave’. He brings a warning, and advice to Keenan, the third and youngest brother in this tale with its traditional twists.

For here we have a quest motif. Here we meet three brothers, so often found in fairy tales (the youngest being the most sensible, as always). Here we find, not exactly three wishes, but certainly three objects to take on the seafaring quest, objects which we know must be useful, or necessary for the drama to unfold. The theft of the butter-knife from Mother Carey’s pub, to equate with the silver sword needed, heightens the tension, and sets the dangerous journey moving. What happens subsequently the reader must find out by reading – but it’s unexpected, unpredictable as the sea itself, with an unusual twist of young romance – a strange happily-ever-after ending.

The haunting illustrations, in a restricted palette of sea-green watercolour, do in this instance work well. The endpages in particular, which betray the mood of the story in the faces of the three brothers, will capture the imagination, and the frequent double-spreads should prove great talking points for young readers sharing the book with others. The cover itself is somewhat confusing, however – the face doesn’t match the story, which brings to mind that old adage, that you can’t judge a book by its cover!

- Chris Stevens @ www.gwales.com,