Lalani of the Distant Sea
by Erin Entrada Kelly
Greenwillow Books (HarperCollins), 2019. 386 pages.
Starred Review
Review written October 18, 2019, from a library book
Lalani of the Distant Sea is an original fantasy tale with an island theme.
Lalani lives in a small island community tightly ruled by the menyoro. Everybody has their roles. They pray to the Mountain that it will not get angry with them.
Now there is a drought. Plants are drying up and everyone is thirsty.
Years ago, Lalani’s father and her best friend’s father both sailed away, trying to cross the Veiled Sea to reach the mythical island of Isa where good things grow. But their fathers never returned, and now Lalani and her mother live with her brutish Uncle Drum and his son Kul. They tell Lalani over and over that she is useless.
Lalani starts the trouble when she chases a Shek that goes to the mountain looking for grass. She meets a man with horns on his head and no eyes. He says he came from the island of Isa. He gives Lalani a wish.
But things go wrong with her wish, and more troubles come. Eventually, Lalani must decide if she is brave enough to try to go to Isa herself, even though no one has ever done so and returned.
This fantasy world is populated with magical creatures and nonmagical creatures that add to the exotic flavor of the world. I didn’t like how beaten down Lalani was during this story – but that made her adventure and triumph all the greater.
I do like the way some of the creatures are introduced in short second-person well-illustrated chapters. Here’s the beginning of one of those called “You Are a Weeping Loset.”
Imagine you are a weeping loset. You are tall and beautiful, but sorrowful. Your curved branches look like the shoulders of a crying woman, and your moss is gray and coarse. You are unhappy but can’t remember why. Perhaps you suffered a great loss hundreds of years ago, and only a lingering heartache remains.
You see all who pass. You’re a curious tree, because there is so little to do but stand and wait for something to happen. And now, something has! There is a girl. You’ve never seen her before. She smells hot and dry, like dust. She steps lightly, but purposefully, and she is afraid. You know this because your roots plunge into the earth, and everything that touches the ground settles onto them.
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