![]() The road to the hopeful but honest conclusion is thoughtful but never maudlin, and the insights the author offers will linger long after journey's end. ![]() His depiction of the silent pain of one who sits bedside in a hospital, hour after hour, with only the most tenuous strands of hope, is heartbreaking. In a powerful scene, Gavin offers up an enormous sacrifice to the selkies if they will "please, please help me get Grandad back." While such a summary suggests a fantasy, the author remains more concerned with the quieter moments and emotions that define the characters' tender relationships. ![]() ![]() For Gavin, the fact that Grandad suffered the stroke while he was talking about the fabled "selkies" (a race of half-seal/half-men who sometimes come onto dry land to walk among us) is more than a coincidence. In this thought-provoking prehistoric adventure tale, part of a new series, Dickinson considers evolution, revisiting themes he explored in A Bone from a Dry Sea. A skilled maker of model boats, Grandad is nearly finished building one for Gavin when a stroke renders him silent and motionless in a hospital bed. The boy and his grandfather spend their days together fishing along the shores of their Scotland home. Grandad is young Gavin's dear friend and confidante -his father is away at sea, his mother and grandmother are too often at work. ![]() Magic hovers just beneath the surface of Dickinson's ( The Ropemaker ![]()
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