Billy Lazroe and the King of the Sea: A Northwest Legend - Hardcover

Grade 1-4-Born to seafaring parents in Oregon, Billy Lazroe has "salt water in his veins" and goes to sea at age 14. Throughout his travels, he is comforted by his love of music. One night, his song is so beautiful that Davy Jones sends him a bag of gold, insisting that Billy play for his shipmates in Davy Jones's locker. Horrified, Billy postpones the bargain. He sails for seven years-until Davy Jones reappears, and Billy follows him to the bottom of the sea, sure that his life is over. Instead, Davy allows him to chose one of his daughters as a bride, with the warning that Billy never look back at her until they reach home port. When danger threatens, however, he turns to protect her and she disappears. Brokenhearted, he tells his story to the sailors in Erickson's Saloon and then disappears, but his voice is still heard on stormy nights. Steirnagle's thick chalk drawings enhance the mood of the tale with their rich textures and deep hues. The artist varies the point of view and the placement of the text on each page, so that each large illustration is a rhythmic focal point for the storyteller's voice. Kimmel's retelling of a Russian tale rings true to its American setting but has elements of older myths and stories that speak of the special bond between sailor and sea.
Barbara Kiefer, Teachers College, Columbia University, NY
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 2^-4, younger for reading aloud. Kimmel sets an old Russian tale in his native Oregon at the turn of the century. From the beginning we know that Billy Lazroe loves the sea, but he also fears "the blue-green waters that one day would become his grave." As a seafarer, he travels the world, and his music is so beautiful that Davy Jones, the King of the Sea, wants Billy to come and make music in his kingdom beneath the ocean. Billy stalls the king and sails the seas for seven years, but then the king comes for him, and Billy finds himself with all the world's brave, drowned sailors in Davy Jones' locker. The king's daughter, the sweet river Willamette, becomes Billy's bride, but when she can't follow him to Portland, he disappears--and some say he is still singing down there in the river he loves. Kimmel's lyrical text, quite long for a picture-book story, has a strong sense of frontier adventure, and Steirnagle's glowing pastels capture the wildness and yearning of the characters on the ships and in the mysterious world at the bottom of the sea. Hazel Rochman