Aquamarine & Indigo (Two Novels, One Book) - by Alice Hoffman (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Two luminous stories of friendship, magic, and the sea -- bound together in one beautiful volume -- by bestselling author Alice Hoffman.

In Aquamarine, twelve-year-old best friends Hailey and Claire are enjoying their last summer together when they discover something at the bottom of the murky pool at the Capri Beach Club. There, among the seaweed and jellyfish that a summer storm washed in from the ocean, is a mysterious and beautiful creature with a sharp tongue and a broken heart -- a mermaid named Aquamarine.

As her six sisters beckon to her to return to the sea, and Aquamarine begins to fade away in the burning August sun, she stubbornly refuses to leave the pool and persists in her search for love on dry land.

On the edge of growing up, during a summer that is the hottest on record, Hailey and Claire learn that life can take an unpredictable course, that friendship is forever, and that magic can be found in the most unexpected places.

In Indigo, thirteen-year-old Martha Glimmer is convinced this is the worst time of her life. Her mother died, she grew seven inches, and she has to put up with a woman who plies Martha's lonely father with food and opinions about how thirteen-year-old girls should behave. Martha longs to leave Oak Grove and travel. Her best friend Trevor and his brother Eli also want to leave Oak Grove. Nicknamed Trout and Eel because of the thin webbing between their fingers and toes, they long to see the ocean. When the trio decide to run away to the ocean, trouble ensues.

Bestselling author Alice Hoffman weaves together two enchanting tales of friendship and magic, finding home and the sea in one gorgeous volume.

Review Quotes

Praise for Aquamarine:

"Hoffman's spare words reveal the magic and the gritty realism in daily life, 'somewhere between laughter and a wave breaking.'" -- Booklist

"A gossamer fable." -- Kirkus Reviews

"Young teens will be entranced by the strange dreaminess of this poignant little story about love and loss." --Amazon.com

"Hoffman creates an apt metaphor for that twilight time between childhood and adolescence when magic still seems possible and friendships run deep and true." -- Publishers Weekly

Praise for Indigo:

"[R]eaders who like fables will connect with the vivid writing and with the friends' restlessness and yearning for self-discovery and adventure." -- Booklist

About the Author

Alice Hoffman is the highly acclaimed author of over thirty novels for readers of all ages, including The Dovekeepers, The World That We Knew -- winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, The Marriage of Opposites, Practical Magic, Incantation, The Foretelling, and most recently, The Invisible Hour. Her previous novels for Scholastic Press are Aquamarine, which was made into a major motion picture, Indigo, Green Witch, and Green Angel, which Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, called "achingly lovely." She lives outside of Boston.