This review includes the whole story: SPOILER ALERT

The only reason why I give this children's book for about 8-year-olds three stars are the illustrations. They are lovely and very colourful. The story itself is weak and badly written. (Considering they are claiming the story has been riping for nine years...)

Emilio's family has been pushed out of business by an "evil competitor" mostly because of price-dumping and a modern building. This and because he doesn't like the ocean but gains money from it - those are the two main characteristics to make him evil. I understand that they wanted to build up the "traditional = good" versus capitalistic evil but it doesn't work out well: Emilio is mostly just lamentating how bad and evil the competitor is (not saying how; basically just stating how he doesn't like him) - and this makes Emilio not very sympathetic.

However. Emilio is allowed to go diving for the first time on his eighth birthday and finds the mysterious and famous shining pearl everybody in the coastal village is looking for. They are building a museum so that people can visit the pearl. It gets stolen by the villain. But the ocean wants the pearl back and a huge storm is brooding - endangering Emilio's friend and the villain's daughter. They give the pearl back to the ocean and it calms down again. Funnily, when the whole story is over, the author starts describing the village and its people. Why now? There is not a lot about motives, "reasoning", "cause-and-effect".

So, if you are looking for a children's book with great illustrations, this is something for you. If you want the story to be well written, not so much. ( )