Rating: 
Summary: Sweet and whimsical summer story for all ages
Review: In just over 100 pages, Alice Hoffman's "Aquamarine" tells a delightful and magical little tale that mixes fact and fantasy.Twelve year old Claire and Hailey are best friends who like hanging out at a rundown beach club with only Raymond, a handsome bookworm going off to college for company. Claire is going to move to Florida, and the two girls never want their languid summer to end. One day, the two girls discover Aquarmaine, a mermaid living at the bottom of the pool. Aquamarine is very rude to them at first, but we find out that she ran away from home because she's hopelessly in love with Raymond. Claire and Hailey are naturally enchanted with the beautiful stranger, and conspire to help her meet Raymond. "Aquamarine" has a familiar story that young girls can relate to about having your best friend move away, but the addition of a mermaid is a subtle touch that adds a lot of magic and an interesting twist. The book is also beautifully written, with plenty of sea imagery. The ending is heartwarming and bittersweet with an emphasis on the "sweet." It's a perfect book for summer, a lighthearted easy read.
Rating:
Summary: Sweet and whimsical summer story for all ages
Review: In just over 100 pages, Alice Hoffman's "Aquamarine" tells a delightful and magical little tale that mixes fact and fantasy. Twelve year old Claire and Hailey are best friends who like hanging out at a rundown beach club with only Raymond, a handsome bookworm going off to college for company. Claire is going to move to Florida, and the two girls never want their languid summer to end. One day, the two girls discover Aquarmaine, a mermaid living at the bottom of the pool. Aquamarine is very rude to them at first, but we find out that she ran away from home because she's hopelessly in love with Raymond. Claire and Hailey are naturally enchanted with the beautiful stranger, and conspire to help her meet Raymond. "Aquamarine" has a familiar story that young girls can relate to about having your best friend move away, but the addition of a mermaid is a subtle touch that adds a lot of magic and an interesting twist. The book is also beautifully written, with plenty of sea imagery. The ending is heartwarming and bittersweet with an emphasis on the "sweet." It's a perfect book for summer, a lighthearted easy read.
Rating: 
Summary: A Mystical and Mythical Tale
Review: Once again, as she has done in her past books, Alice Hoffman delights her reading audience with the title Aquamarine. Written primarily for young adults, the author reveals a wonderful tale about love, loss and endearing friendships. Hailey and Claire are twelve year olds who have always lived next door to each other. They are the very best of friends and have been there for each other through tragedies and good times. But now their lives are about to change forver. As the days till the end of the summer dwindle down, both Hailey and
Claire know that in a few days their lives will never be quite the same. Their favorite beach club is slated to be demolished and then Claire will be moving to Florida with her grandparents. Still, there is one more adventure in store for them which will not only seal their friendship forever but will show them that their bonds are stronger than time and distance. Alice Hoffman, the well known author of books like Practical Magic and Forune's Daughter, has thrilled adult readers for some time. Now she ventures into a new age group with this worthwhile title. I hope that many young adults and their parents will read this book and see how this author weaves together themes of nature, undconditional love and a mythical cerature to provide a poignant and memorable read.
Rating:
Summary: My eight year old loved this book
Review: She read it herself and loved the words as well as the wonderful artwork on the jacket.
Rating:
Summary: Good Summer time reader
Review: The book Aguamarine is a good fun easy reader. Alice Hoffman does a good job of describing the old Capri Beach Club where most of the story take place. Hailey and Claire are the main characters. These two girls find a supprise during their last summer at the Capri. All though one is moving it doesn't stop the girls from having a good time.So if you want to find out what happens read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is really over-rated!
Review: The book is a tale about two young girls who are best friends that find a mermaid. Claire and Hailey are both 12 years old. Claire and her grandparents are moving to Florida and Hailey and Claire are sad that she has to move. Not only is she moving, but their hang out, the Capri Beach Club, is closing down. A mermaid named Aquamarine was washed up at the Capri Beach Club after a big rain storm. The girls make friends with the mermaid and they realize that she is looking unhealthy and her scales are falling off. If she does not go back into the water, she will turn into dust and die. The problem is that Aquamarine refuses to go back into the water because she thinks she is in love with Raymond, the boy who works at the snack bar. When Hailey tries to tell the mermaid that he is not her type, Aquamarine insists that she is like her sisters, jealous. Claire and Hailey try to get Raymond to like her. Aquamarine finally says that she will return to the ocean after she goes on a date with Raymond. Claire had a wheelchair and Hailey had some old clothes. They set her up on a date with Raymond and they fell in love. The next night is the big good bye party at the Capri Club when Raymond figures out that she is a mermaid when she saves a little boy from drowning in the pool. Finally, the girls save the mermaid by taking her out to sea but they say they will miss her. The conflict in the story was solved when Aquamarine goes back into the ocean to live and everyone goes on with their lives. This was a very sappy book.
If you are a 12 year old girl, you would really enjoy this book. Aquamarine was a book mainly written for girls. For one thing, it is about 12 year old girls, and it is about a mermaid. Also, it was about a girl mermaid falling in love with Raymond from the Snack Bar. This was not really a guy kind of book. Next time I think I will choose a book that a boy would like more. Maybe I will choose a book that has more action in it.
Rating: 
Summary: Trouble in Paradise
Review: The story was about a mermaid named Aquamarine who is washed up on shore by a storm and two friends who are about to lose each other. Aquamarine wants to stay because she fell in love, but if she doesn't go she will die. The two must help Aquamarine before it's too late. The book was so-so. I understand it was meant for young readers, but I still think there should have been more details. But that is only my opinion.
Rating:
Summary: Misrable Mermaid Mahem
Review: The story was absoulutly horrible and on a rating from one to ten, it would be a negative five. It would not be worth a cent, to even a book deprived orphan.
For starters, it has no plot, whatsoever. The closet thing to a plot that can be found, if you have the time and patience to look, it that, if your a mermaid, don't be annoying.
For the mermaid in the story is beyond annoying. She gets to the point that you just want to wring her scaly neck. She talks back, is stubburn and rude. And yet the two main characters in the story LIKE her!
The story starts with these two incredibally boring girls who (fortunatly) are moving away from each other, soo. I don't know if I could stand another sentance of "I'll miss her so much" or "I wish I could go back in time." They the spoiled mermaid and set her up with this nice guy, who, incrediable, likes her. It would be more likly that he would be struck by lightning, than to the find and like this mermaid.
But all bad things can't last for forever, much to my pleasure, and the mermaid goes back to the sea, before dieing from lack of salt (booo!!!). Then, in the end, the guy must turn into a fish, or something, because he goes out to live witht he mermaid. They should have just had the mermaid into a fish fillet.
If I could go back in time, I would have never read the book. Sitting in school would have been better than reading that book.
Rating:
Summary: A shimmering jewel
Review: This "tail" of friendship feels of young, "summer-camp" bittersweetness. Main characters Hailey and Claire, 12-year-old best friends, are spending their last summer together at the beach, commiserating and dreading the fact that Claire will be moving at summer's end. A particularly violent summer storm deposits Aquamarine, a fiesty mermaid, into the path of the girls. Aquamarine, though not your stereotypical damsel-in-distress, is in dire need of help. Hailey and Claire, drawing strength from each other, devise a plan to save her. As they work together for the sake of another, Hailey and Claire gradually come to terms with the inevitable. As a parent, teacher, and school library media specialist, I think middle school girls will delight in this story, especially those younger than twelve years of age. The physical aspects of the book set the tone even before you turn a page -- the sparkling ocean-hue of the dust jacket and the beautiful cover art of shimmering water, pool-like tiles, under-sea bubbles, water-filtered sunlight, and the ethereal mermaid.
Rating:
Summary: A shimmering jewel
Review: This "tail" of friendship feels of young, "summer-camp" bittersweetness. Main characters Hailey and Claire, 12-year-old best friends, are spending their last summer together at the beach, commiserating and dreading the fact that Claire will be moving at summer's end. A particularly violent summer storm deposits Aquamarine, a fiesty mermaid, into the path of the girls. Aquamarine, though not your stereotypical damsel-in-distress, is in dire need of help. Hailey and Claire, drawing strength from each other, devise a plan to save her. As they work together for the sake of another, Hailey and Claire gradually come to terms with the inevitable. As a parent, teacher, and school library media specialist, I think middle school girls will delight in this story, especially those younger than twelve years of age. The physical aspects of the book set the tone even before you turn a page -- the sparkling ocean-hue of the dust jacket and the beautiful cover art of shimmering water, pool-like tiles, under-sea bubbles, water-filtered sunlight, and the ethereal mermaid.
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