One day, the villagers found his clothing on the riverbank and neither he nor the mermaid was ever seen again.

When I was twelve years old, I read a story in English class about a fisherman who became obsessed with a mermaid. What has been your inspiration for writing it? she might not even be human! But who’s going to believe her? Can Josephine convince her friends to help her and use her cricket skills to save Daddy from Mariss’s dark magic before it’s too late? Josephine knows that Mariss isn’t what she seems. And even worse, she seems to be turning Daddy against Josephine. Josephine can tell there’s something fishy about Mariss - she sings in a strange language, eats weird food, and seems to exert mysterious control over everyone she meets. And unlike the other girlfriends, this one doesn’t scare easily. That afternoon, Daddy brings home a new catch, a beautiful woman named Mariss.

But instead of solving her problems, an even bigger one arises . Frustrated and unsure where else to turn, Josephine makes a wish in front of the powerful silk cotton Tree. But then Coach Broomes throws a wrench into her plan and announces that girls can’t try out for the team. She’ll get to play her favorite sport AND make sure Daddy is too busy attending her matches to date. That’s why she’s desperate to make it onto her school’s cricket team. Stine’s THE GIRL WHO CRIED MONSTER.Įleven-year-old Josephine Cadogan loves two things above all else:Ģ) Scaring away her fisherman father’s new girlfriends JOSEPHINE AGAINST THE SEA is great for fans of Tracey Baptiste’s THE JUMBIES, and R.L. What is your book about for those who haven’t read it? I once heard someone in an interview say “the one thing I’m not is one thing” and that phrase encapsulates my work I’m always looking to experiment with style, theme, plot so each of my stories may bring a different reading experience. The US version of the novel, JOSEPHINE AGAINST THE SEA, comes out with Scholastic in July. That book actually got shortlisted for the competition and was published in the Caribbean as My Fishy Stepmom. When I challenged myself to write a children’s novel for a regional competition called the BURT Award for Caribbean YA Literature, I fell in love with writing for children. For most of my life I wrote adult literary short fiction, and then later on I wrote and produced feature films, then I also dipped my toe into writing plays and musicals. I am a Barbadian author, currenting residing and writing from the south coast of Barbados. What would you like readers to know about you?

Josephine against the sea