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Cargando... The Sea Manpor Jane Yolen
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When sailors aboard a Dutch ship in 1663 capture a creature, half man and half fish, the superstitious crewmen want to kill it, except for a young cabin boy who believes that the creature deserves to live. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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I enjoyed The Sea Man immensely, finding the story both engrossing and thought-provoking, the writing itself beautiful, and the accompanying illustrations appealing. The way in which Jane Yolen explores the idea of humanity and humanness here, and the manner in which she weaves the theme of compassion and fellow-feeling into her tale, is striking. I really appreciated Lieutenant Huiskemp's musings about language and the soul, and how these are understood to be the things which truly set the human animal apart. It is by recognizing that the sea man has language, albeit one utterly alien to him, that the lieutenant first begins to understand that his captive is not a fish, but a being more like himself. If the recognition of language is the first step in this process, it reaches its culmination when Huiskemp
As much as I enjoyed the story here, I also found the writing itself lovely. There were frequent moments when I had to stop and reread. Amongst them were these favorites:
"The sky's slate is now a soft night blue. Only one star is out, like punctuation to a sentence yet to be written."
"Pieter turns to him and, in a voice made old by truth, declares..."
"They are captive of Henk's story, lad. At night a tale has more command than any officer."
Yolen's well-written, well-told tale is paired very nicely with the black and white illustrations of Christopher Denise, an artist whose work has also appeared in the Redwall picture-books, as well as the beautiful The Wishing of Biddy Malone. I thought his style here, with pencil drawings featuring plenty of shading and detail, matched the ominous but wonder-filled tone of the tale quite well.
I'm very glad to have finally read this one, after many years of having it on my to-read shelf. It's a lovely, thoughtful work of fantasy for beginning chapter-book readers - a group who aren't always given the most thoughtful stories. I was tickled to learn from the author's afterword that it is based upon an account of an actual event, in which Dutch sailors claimed to have rescued a merman, in 1663. Despite the fantastical elements, I have therefore also added this to my historical fiction shelf, as it chronicles an event recorded in history. Highly recommended to young fantasy lovers, particularly those who enjoy stories of mermaids and mermen. ( )