The Islander by Cynthia Rylant

This short novel is a fantasy of a young boy, Daniel who lives with his grandfather on an island called Coquille off the coast of British Columbia. Daniel initially struggled with fitting in and feeling a part of the island community, but he found a mermaid comb and witnessed a brief visit by a mermaid along the beach one day. Curious, he returned to the beach and stayed there past his curfew just to witness another visit. Later in the book Daniel tries to communicate with the mermaid by leaving a message in a bottle on a rock on the beach. He did not see the mermaid again, but he received a message from her through an otter who threw Daniel a shell from the water one day. To Daniel's surprise the shell held a key. Throughout the rest of the book Daniel wore the key around his neck. As he helped rescue birds with his grandfather after a huge storm Daniel discovered that the key quivered at times. Daniel made the connection that when the quivering was strongest he was standing near a living bird or animal that was in need of rescuing. In his rescue efforts with his grandfather he also found a sense of belonging as he helped island neighbors and they helped him after his grandfather died. The story ends happily, because a child he helped rescue because of the quivering of the key turned out to become his girlfriend in later teenage years soon after his grandfather died. Daniel threw a message out to sea in a bottle thanking the mermaid for providing him the family that the islanders had become to him. This book was a thought-provoking escape into a fantasy world that made me hear the waves beating on the beach.