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Title: disappointing and sinister
Review: I bought this book before I looked at the sample pages of text or illustrations. The rave reviews of "mystical" made me expect something more beautiful. I was also hoping for a story of love transforming a cold-hearted creature.I found the illustrations not beautiful but sinister, and too scary for our school's population of age 3 up. Also, the witch never seems to regret her previous pattern of coldly killing innocent sailors, not to "love" them below the sea, but just to kill them.The "love" between the sailor and the sea witch is very superficial---they "love" each other's eyes. To counter a culture which overemphasizes appearances, I look for stories in which people have deeper qualities to love, such as kindness.I feel I wasted my money on this book, which I will not keep in our school collection. If you are trying to teach kindness and compassion, this book is not a good choice.
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