Emily Windsnap and the Pirate Prince Hardcover – Illustrated, March 12, 2019

What a truly amazing premise for books. Really terrific and innovative! But I am so disappointed that the Windsnap series in Book #3 is heading directions inappropriate for my girls 8-12 to read. Kessler introduces an exclusive boyfriend relationship with the boy she rescued. He is allowed on family vacations when Emily is only 12-13 years old...hand holding, snuggling on the sofa alone, Aaron wishing to be alone with her without the parents or relatives with "only one thing on his mind" says Emily at the Falls. Now in Pirate Prince we have an opened-shirt seducer just out of high school in his appearance, overtly flirting with Emily's mother right in front of Emily's eyes at their cruise ship dinner table. She watches her giggling Momma dance with him as if under a spell and Emily feels upset. My gut began to twist. What is going on? Kessler has opened the door for kids about sexual boundaries at 12 years old and sexual seduction for adults. Trusting parents, us being none-the-wiser, I ask, "Where does it go from here?" Now I discover on her website that Liz Kessler is going to be introducing a new series with a 17 year old female character questioning her sexual orientation and identity which I'm sure the young Windsnap readers will want to explore if they follow the Kessler books with the endorsement of my pocketbook. This places an 8-14 year old reader accessing content like this. Sex makes the adult world go 'round in overdoses. And I'm sure the book authors will use this to their advantage and become the parents to our children for us, teaching them the values they wish to see. Can't we just let kids be kids? Parents, be sure you read what your kids are reading. Your evaluation of the book should not be a beautiful cover. I learned that I will not judge the acceptability of a series based on my reading of only the first 2 books which were fantastic. Instead, every book in a series will get my attention. And now that I know, my girls will need another series to follow now that I know where Liz Kessler is headed. We have discussed the content so far together, but you see, it came out through their own mouths, "Why would she write about this if it isn't okay?" Why, indeed.

My daughter is 9 and she is at the stage where she wants to read any books on mermaids and/or unicorns. She told me about this book which usually a hint for me to get it for her. So I bought it for her and the rest of the series. She's a fast learner. She finished reading this book in 2 days.

My 2nd grade daughter is in love with this book series! She owns 7 in the American version so I decided to try this version for her to give her exposure to different phrases and the way words are spelt so that it helps broaden her vocabulary as well as reading comprehension. This is her favorite book so far.

My 8 year old daughter loves this book series! She reads every day and these are her favorite books to read!

My daughter(7 yr old) and I read this series together at bedtime and it is wonderful. It is filled with magical adventures with lessons on friendship, family and trusting yourself. We love Emily Windsnap and are impatiently waiting for the next one to be written.

……and worth reading, especially for a 8-12 year old girl. Not quite realistic enough for an adult but I think will appeal to a lot of girls and even some boys.Liz Kessler is a good kids book writer, nothing to fear here.

My daughter loves this series and hopes it never ends!

My 2nd trader is obsessed with this series — especially since she’s been homeschooled with more “free reading” time. Would suggest to anyone with a mermaid-loving kid, but start with book one!

Great book!

Great book series, my 9 year old niece loves these books. Price is great.

Emily Windsnap is perfect escapism for girls with strong female centred adventures and a range of different people from Emily being half-human half-mermaid, her best friend and dad full merpeople, her mum and mums best friend both human gives much scope for problems and plot points to overcome without throwing the mystical context in too.This is the sort of story that will interest tweens wanting something light and fantasy based but not quite ready or into the deeper side of MG such as Michelle Harrison, Peter Bunzl, Sophie Anderson or Kiran Millwood-Hargrave to name a few but that doesn't mean it's any the less worthy a genre to read! Though I do think this is more suited to older tweens and younger teens due to some of the content.The story is concerned with the aftermath of the events of Book 7 (sorry I have not read) and Emily and her friends and family are travelling home, The humans on a luxury cruise liner and the merpeople on Neptune's carriage. Emily decides to stay with her mum and spend the last time with her boyfriend Aaron before he has to go away home with his father. However disaster occurs when pirates board the ship and seize control, and Aaron is snatched because he can lead the pirates to his mystical home meaning Emily is determined to save him. Only problem is that she begins to empathise for Sam the Captain's younger son and his friends and question her relationship with Aaron.The romantic love triangle and talking of kissing (the protagonist is 13) although it seems pretty much a 'feelings' relationship makes this me a bit wobbly to recommend to children under the age of 10/11ish as whilst of COURSE primary school aged children get crushes I think there's plenty of time for relationship-drama/love triangle books in their teens, although to be fair a character does point out she seems young for a boyfriend that's more than just a label/holding hands and without spoilers the outcome of the whole thing is much more empowering and I'm chuffed for any reader.Overall, this is gorgeous escapism and ideal for reluctant readers from Y7ish as it's a super easy read, lots of gentle vocabulary and lulls you in easily without too much demand than attention which is absolutely brilliant for this age group and something that publishers SHOULD be doing for that gap between MG and YA but even if it makes me sound a prude I'd be a little hesitant to recommend to younger than 10.

Emily Windsnap and the Pirate Prince written by Liz Kessler is another wonderful read which our nine-year-old loves and she was so excited when she seen that there was another book based on her favourite mermaid was on offer.Once again we are brought into the life of Emily Windsnap a young girl who turns into a mermaid when she goes into the sea. This means she is able to have many adventures both on land and sea and for this book she was brought into another adventure coming to the aid of the Pirate Prince in the most unusual of ways.It was full of fun and action and I am happy to report once our little reader started she did not want to put it down.A great fun book which I am very happy to recommend.

This is a fast paced, exciting mermaid fantasy story, which is suitable for confident readers from around 10 plus. The blurb says 8 plus, but I think it is more for older children than that. The main character Emily is a mermaid, who as most mermaids, appears human on land. Emily has a boyfriend who has been captured and taken by pirates and Emily races to his rescue, but finds herself in danger, when she picks the wrong crew to help her. Can she save Aaron, herself and retrieve the Tridant treasure?I passed this on to my niece, who has never read any of this series before and she found it to be really gripping adventure and she wants to read more of the series, she has just turned 11 and thought the book was ideal for people her age.