A Comb of Wishes

Lisa Stringfellow's A Comb of Wishes is a magical and sometimes eerie adventure for 8 year olds about a grieving girl and a very angry mermaid.

What happens

Kela lives on the Caribbean island of St. Rita with her dad, Pop. Since her mum died she has pulled away from everyone, even her best friend Lissy. The only place that still feels like home is the beach, where she hunts for sea glass the way she used to with Mum.

The islanders call sea glass mermaid's tears. Kela and her mum found every colour except orange.

One afternoon Kela hears a strange humming that Lissy can't hear. She follows it through a broken fence into a protected nature park and climbs down a sinkhole into a sea cave. Half buried in the sand is a battered little box covered in barnacles. She knows she shouldn't take it. She takes it anyway.

Deep under the sea, someone is already missing that box. Some chapters belong to Ophidia, a sea woman whose pupils narrow to slits when she's angry. They open like a storyteller talking straight to you ("I say Crick, you say Crack"), and they're genuinely spooky.

The island feels very real. There are neighbours chatting outside the shops, a grocer clearing up after a storm, Lissy's gran telling old tales about the seafolk and a dad who runs a dive shop and won't let Kela take even a shell. Folktales run all the way through, because collecting them was Kela's mum's job.

This one is heavier than a lot of books on its shelf, and it's worth being ready for that. Kela is twelve, and her grief is the heart of the story. She also carries guilt about the last thing she said to her mum, which is handled gently but honestly. Ophidia is properly menacing too. A child who has lost someone might find it very close to home, so it could be a good one to read alongside them. For a reader who likes a story that isn't afraid of big feelings, there's real hope in watching Kela and Lissy find their way back to each other.

What to read next

If they'd like another story about a child missing their mum and finding something special by the sea, try The Lost Whale by Hannah Gold. Rio is sent to stay with a grandmother he barely knows, in a rambling wooden house on the Californian coast.