Welcome to my Second Read Along, I'm so glad you are joining me.
Here is how it works, answer the questions below, for each correct response I will enter your name for a chance to win 1 of 3 prizes (a handmade item, a PBS Credit or a $5 Gift certificate from Amazon). You have until Monday January 16th to answer this set of questions.
Leave your answers in a comment with a way for me to get in touch with you.
Today for the handmade prize I have created an ornament featuring Margrethe's desire for Rapture and Lenia's for a Soul.
1. What does Margarethe consider Rapture
2. Besides the obvious (legs/tail) what is the major difference between Humans and Mermaids?
3. What combination of things does Lenia think feels like a soul?
4. According to Lenia why are humans and mermaids separate?
5. What are the conditions of Lenia's wish?
Bonus:
What is Sybil's most striking Feature?
Discussion:
1. Prince Christopher says he was attached by a dragon, do you think he lied? If so why.
2. Do you find Carolyn's selection of the name Christopher significant?
3. How do you picture the mermaids at this point?
I hope you are enjoying the book, please feel free to leave any type of comment about the book (so if you don't like it please let us know and let us know why). I'm looking forward to your answers and this discussion.
10 comments:
Loving Mermaid so far.
1.Margrethe's Rapture...mentioned 2 places...once when seeing the love and soul unity felt by Lenia gazing on the prince. 2nd time in garden, and how she felt when she wished to kiss the prince, and it be her first.
2.The greatest diff. between mermaid and human, would have to be that human's have souls. Many differences though... land/sea, eggs/live birth.
3.Lenia believed that human souls were immortal and would live forever after rising to heaven, after death. These souls would continue and hold memories of loves, family, children, life.
4.Lenia's grandmother told tales of the world once being all sea, till a great battle happened between the king and queen of the ocean. The king created land from the ocean floor, and legs that he could walk on, separating the two worlds.
5.Conditions of Lenia's wish --Her tail would split to become legs, but with great pain. --Cannot be mermaid ever again, loss of all past, family. --She must win prince's love and marry him to gain a soul. She must give up her voice, by having her tongue cut out.
Bonus-Sybil's most striking feature besides her powers of course, is her pale gold eyes. Other mermaids eyes are blue.
1. I believe the prince perceived the dragon breathing fire as a creature. It's a possibility in times of superstition that he might have seen lightning striking as a dragons flames. It was stormy at the time. But then too... since mermaids exist in this story, dragons might be possible.
2. I think Carolyn Turgeon's choice to use Christopher as the prince's name, was maybe to honor the original author of The Little Mermaid, Hans Chistian Anderson.
3. Up to now, I picture the mermaids other than Lenia as being aloof, often fearful, superstitious, steeped in past tragedies without the want to explore or change beyond their comfort zone. Lenia is an adventurer and a dreamer, not afraid to go beyond past limitations to learn new things and discover possibilities.
Great read so far Caroline. yayyy... I can read on now. I tried to behave and not go beyond Chap. 8 till after question time. LOL Till nest time... Hugs, Sandy (sandyponey@yahoo.com)
Great read...
1. "Pure radiant love"& a 1st kiss.
2. Humans wear clothes, can't breath in water and have no idea when they'll die but have eternal life when they do. Mermaids don't wear clothes,can breath in or out of water,live 300yrs. and become one with the sea.
3.Souls are pure webs of light inside you that give you immortality. Lenia can "feel" the soul in a humans breath and heart beat.
4. Humans will have eternal life but mermaids live for 300yrs.
5. She must leave behind her mermaid life and family, endure constant leg pain, win the love of the prince and marry him and give up her voice.
Bonus= pale,gold eyes
A. Maybe he lied or maybe he can't accept the reality of the loss of his crew.
B.Yes, its my son's name! And Christopher is the patron of travelers.
C. A mermaid has a sleek, fit upper torso that's like marble and a lower forked tail covered with shiny silver scales that are blue-green underneath. She has long thick white hair and ocean blue eyes.
I'm so ready to read on because I feel I know what Lenia will decide to do and I'm afraid for her. It's such a nicely written book. So glad you chose this one Caro. hugs!
Great answers so far!
Discussion
1. I beleive that the Prince lied, that he was using/altering the story of Odysseius to "impress" his savior. It never occured to me about the lightning, that is an interesting point Sandy!
2. Andrea, I didn't know Christopher was the patron saint of Travelers, that totally changes my view on this question. I was with Sandy and felt like the author wanted to honor Anderson.
3. I view them as kind of being brutal, not sleek and pretty but a bit monstrous with sharp teeth (I think I feel this way because they just pluck fish out of the water and eat them).
1) Margarethe considers Pure, Radiant Love as Rapture.
2)Major difference between Humans and Mermaids - Humans have souls
3)Lenia believes souls contain memories of the Human's life, loves, family, children, etc.
4)Lenia believes her grandmother that Humans are base, cruel, that they will kill mermaids
5)She must withstand pain of tail separating and turning to legs, lose her voice, and she must win the love of the Prince. Can never go back.
bonus - pale, gold eyes that pull you in
1) I am really not sure if he lied or if he thought he actually was attacked by a dragon. I can see both points of view.
2)I too thought it was in honor of Anderson but maybe it was in honor of St Christopher. I actually never thought of that.
3)I think that they have a 'beauty' but more like a savage beauty. Nothing like humans. More like the beauty you might see in a wild animal.
1. look of pure radiant love
2. humans are predatory. live short violent lives before their bodies rot. mermaids live 300 years and turn gracefully into foam.
3. humans: webs of light inside every human..a light that escaped the body and rises to something called heaven..when they marry their souls combine and become stronger. and when the soul talks to God it is a prayer. and the emotions that she saw Margrethe felt.
4. humans have souls..mermaids dont.. mermaids live for 300 years..
5. she will feel that her tail is being split by a sword..it will feel like walking on knife blades with every step...and she will have to give up her voice also.
BONUS: sybils eyes
1. Margrethe thinks rapture is when Christopher’s eyes are right next to hers in the garden when she is thinking of her first kiss.
2. The major difference between humans and mermaids is how they die. Humans have souls that go to heaven, but they can die at any time. Mermaids live for 300 hundred years, and then turn to foam and become part of the sea.
3. Lenia’s grandmother told her that souls were webs of light inside humans that rose to heaven after the humans died. And Lenia wonders what it would feel like to have a web of light inside her.
4. Humans and mermaids are separate because of a terrible battle between a king and queen. The king ripped up to ocean floor and created the upper world. Then created legs from his tail.
5. The conditions of Lenia’s wish are to lose her voice, never see her friends or family again, never be a mermaid again, and for her to feel like she is walking on knife blades once legs are created from her tail.
Bonus: Sybil’s most striking feature are her pale, gold eyes.
Discussion:
1. I believe Christopher lied about being attacked by a dragon to impress the princess and not to appear weak.
2. I didn’t find the name Christopher significant, but I am curious to hear everyone else’s thoughts.
3. I picture the mermaids as strong, hard, sparkling and beautiful with human features above the waist and tails below the waist.
Caroline, I love the book and would have never read it otherwise. Thanks for putting this together.
I haven't reached chapter 8 yet so I will answer the questions probably tomorrow. I really like the book so far though!
1) I don't think Christopher lied about the dragon. I am thinking Sybil played a hand in that. (watch me be WAY off) but I loved how the author referenced the Odyssey as his vocal intro it was a really quick way to give him a great personality and now knowing that Christopher is the patron saint of Travelers that really fits his reference to the Odyssey! :)
3) Physically i see them as almost having a ghostly shimmer around them...like their edges are never quiet crisp to the human eye they sort of glow maybe (but glow isn't quiet the right word). Mentally so far I find them to be really arrogant humans don't even have the decency to die beautifully. I am thinking that might just be the few characters we met thus far though.
Really looking forward to the rest of this book! Great pick. :)
1. Pure radiant love; the thing she saw come over the nuns faces as they knelt
2. Humans have souls which lived forever
3. The feeling she feels thru a heartbeat
4. Gotta go back and check on this one
5. Take a potion that will painfully split her tail into legs and give up visiting her family. She will not be able to watch children grow and she must give up her voice. Singing and speaking
Bonus; her pale gold eyes
Not sure if I did this right....feel pressure cause it was due today so hopefully I am good. Can't jump from screen to screen on the iPad so will post another time if I missed something. Am enjoying the book so far....but hunger games is calling me too....lol
Sandi with an i
Part 2. Lol
1. Discussion...not sure....will agree with he was telling a lie
2. It could have been to honor the original author but the patron saint of travelers comes from his original job of carrying young across the water, one of which was Christ
3. I guess because of the text, I am not seeing them as brutal, but as my stereotype vision of a mermaid. The name Lenia sounds more feminine to me than monstrous .
Thanks for the push to read again!
Sandi with an i
I missed the deadline for the questions, but I had another question: where do you think the book is set? I.e. what are the north and south kingdoms, or are they completely fictious? At first, I thought the setting was Scotland (north) and England (south), based on physical descriptions and history of rivalry, plus the islands Christopher was looking for could easily be the Shetland Islands or Scandinavian ones. As I read further along, I don't think it's really important to the story, but I was curious to see if anyone else pondered this.
I also though the dragon was conjurred by the sea witch. When reading the original story as a wee tyke, the sea witch sounded cruel and terrifying (though now I realize she isn't exactly a villain) and I always had it in my mind that the witch caused the storm.
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