Emily Windsnap and the Ship of Lost Souls

Liz Kessler's Emily Windsnap and the Ship of Lost Souls is a spooky island mystery for 10 year olds, set on a school trip that goes strange from the very first night.

What happens

Emily has just turned thirteen and her week is split in two. She's at ordinary school Monday to Thursday and mermaid school on Fridays and Saturdays. Wherever she is, she's sure she's missing the fun somewhere else (and she might be right).

Then both schools are invited to Fivebays Island for a week. It's the first trip where a human class and a mer class go away together. Emily, Aaron and Shona can't wait.

The welcome is a bit of a let-down. Lyle, who looks after the island, turns up late and scruffy. There are no sheets on the beds and no milk for the cocoa. His wife Lowenna planned the whole week, and now she's "had to go away". Lyle won't say why.

Then there's the name. Fivebays Island only has four bays on the map. Lyle says the fifth is far too dangerous to reach. Can you guess what Emily and Aaron do next?

A shortcut on the treasure hunt takes them off the path and tumbling down a cliff (a twisted ankle and some scratches, nothing worse). They find hidden steps leading to a big wooden chair staring out to sea. And far out on the horizon there's a ship. Nobody else seems to spot it, and each time it comes back it's a little harder to make out.

Emily tells it all herself and she's very funny about her own mistakes. Sitting next to Aaron in that chair, she jokes about the two of them ruling the oceans together. Then she spends the next minute horrified that she's accidentally asked him to marry her!

There's lots for anyone who likes a proper puzzle. Where's Lowenna? Who sits in that chair? And why does the ship keep fading? Emily can never resist a mystery, and she knows it (which doesn't stop her for a second).

It's an American edition (Mom, eighth grade, summer vacation), so younger readers might want the school years explained.

It's the sixth Emily Windsnap book, and the first page looks back over earlier adventures and gives away how some of them end. For a reader who hasn't met Emily, The Tail of Emily Windsnap is the place to begin.

What to read next

If they love a girl who can't leave a mystery alone, The Mermaid Call could be next. Vivien lives beside a lake with its own mermaid legend, where two village girls once disappeared for months, and the water is where she feels most herself.