On an Italian hillside, Paulo the shepherd boy plays his wooden flute badly, but thinks he is a match for King Ocean himself. Before he knows it he's swept beneath the waves to an underwater world of dolphins and merfolk. Here King Ocean challenges him to play not only all the songs of the earth, but the songs of the sea, or else stay captive and polish mermaid's scales and scrub salt off the seabed for seven long years. A lyrical story complemented by Peter Malone's stunning fine art illustrations.

 

 

There are 32 pages in this book.

This is a picture book. A picture book uses pictures and text to tell the story. The number of words varies from zero ('wordless') to around 1k over 32 pages. Picture books are typically aimed at young readers (age 3-6) but can also be aimed at older children (7+).

This book was published in 2019 by Hachette Children's Group .

Peter Malone has illustrated a number of picture books for Orion. He was commissioned by the Royal Mail for a set of Christmas stamps. He lives in Bath with his wife and two daughters. Lucy Coats read Ancient History at Edinburgh University, then worked in children's publishing. She now writes full-time from her home in Northamptonshire, and is working on a collection of Celtic tales for Orion.