"What makes a ten year old girl think she can go out in a boat alone, at night, with only her dog for a sailing mate?" The immediate answer to that question in this book is muscles but there's much more to the story. You see Keeper, who is the ten year old girl in question, has made a real mess of things. When white haired Signe who watches over Keeper starts to make blue moon gumbo for this very special night and finds she doesn't have enough pepper sauce, she tells herself everything will be all right for the thirty minutes she'll be gone to the store. But just for that moment she seems to have forgotten it's Keeper she's talking about. This is the Keeper who believes her mother is a mermaid and who can hear the crabs telling her they don't want to go into that gumbo pot. This is the same Keeper who has a very special dog named BD who gives stealth kisses. And this is the Signe who carried the newborn Keeper from the ocean when Keeper's mother gave birth to her. She should have known better but on this special night of the blue moon, Signe was making her blue moon gumbo because a very special man, Dogie, is probably at long last going to ask a very special question. Keeper knows all of this and that is the real reason she is taking the boat out. You see, while Signe was gone on her errand, Keeper released all the crabs back to the sea and now she wants to make amends and bring some crabs back to the kitchen and back to Signe who has cared for her since she was a baby. So, Keeper takes Dogie's boat and BD hops in and off they sail on what should be a simple adventure. The lives of another neighbor are intertwined with the story and bring an element of magic to the tale. Talk about storytelling. This is another uncoiling story where you feel the magic and the danger in slow release doses. But at the end get your tissue box ready because Kathi Appelt reaches your heart with a well concocted recipe -all the right ingredients for a great read.
402 pages
