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Mermaid S.O.S. #7
Amber's First Task
The evil mermaid Mantora has stolen six precious Snow Diamonds from Ice Kingdom, and it's up to the Arctic Mermaids to find them! In Amber's First Task Amber leads her friends to the first Snow Diamond and a clue to where the next Diamond is hidden, and along the way manage to help a young Inuit girl save a beluga whale.
96 pages, Paperback
First published March 5, 2007
5 people are currently reading
49 people want to read
About the author
Gillian Shields
59 books540 followersGillian Shields was born and brought up in Yorkshire, in the north of England. As she grew up, she had two passions:books and theater. Gillian’s love of books led her to read English at St. Catharine's College, Cambridge. After university she studied acting in London. She then taught in a drama school, the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts, for several years, becoming Vice Principal. She recently taught English and Drama at Beechwood Sacred Heart, a girls’ boarding school.
Having children gave Gillian an excuse to carry on reading children’s books, as well as a motivation to write them. She has a son and a daughter, and is married to Brian, who works for the New York Times Media Group.
Hobbies, Interests, and Enthusiasms
I am currently learning Italian (or trying to!) and have a secret fantasy about going to live on the beautiful island of Sicily one day, and having a little stone house with a lemon tree in the garden, and a view of the blue, blue sea! I am lucky, though, because I do live in a fantastic part of England, full of soft green fields and rolling hills and cottages that date back four hundred years.
I like to go for long walks and see the changes that the seasons bring, and I try to imagine how it all must have been years and years ago, and how the people lived. I was brought up in the north of England which is much more rugged and wild—the backdrop to Immortal.
I also enjoy being in the city—although I wouldn't want to live there all the time, it's fun to go window shopping or to big new exhibitions or shows, or just hang out in a coffee shop with a cappuccino and a notebook and watch the busy world go by.
Something I enjoy is painting. I have taken quite a few art classes and find it very creative to work with paint and charcoal and images instead of words, though somehow I can't help adding bits of poetry and scraps of words into my paintings, too… When I was at school, I was completely obsessed by the Pre-Raphaelites, and I love the way their art is so intertwined with poetry and stories. My best friend is an artist and she is incredibly inspiring to me.
I hate cooking but love the idea of being a good cook and welcoming all my friends and family to delicious meals. So I have lots of beautiful cookery books but I never get past the first couple of recipes. Every so often I get madly enthusiastic all over again, but it doesn't last.
When I am writing, I can't listen to music—I find it too distracting, but I love to listen to the radio when I am driving. I listen to pop music in the morning and classical music in the afternoon. That just seems right somehow. My son is really into music, so I enjoy sharing his enthusiasms. At the moment we are listening to Eminem, Akon, NDubz, Chipmunk, Kanye West, plus Greenday, Michael Jackson…the list goes on. My current absolute favorite is Paolo Nutini.
Another interest I have is this amazing charity called The Smile Train which carries out operations for disadvantaged children born with harelip/cleft palate. Sometimes I feel I don't realize how lucky I am, and so it's good to try and do something to help a child on the other side of the world who isn't so lucky. My family also tries to support Sightsavers International, who do simple cataract operations to restore the sight of hundreds of people in the developing world.
On a more self-indulgent note, I love to get to the theater whenever I can, and to the ballet, which I adore. In another fantasy life I would definitely be a ballerina!
I can't imagine getting through a day without reading or writing. I know it sounds a complete cliche, but there it is. I go to a writers' workshop once a week to meet other writers and exchange ideas and read work in progress, and that is hugely important to me. And every spare minute of the time at home I am reading, reading, reading…What would we do without stories?
Education
St Catharine's College, Cambridge University (MA in Englis
Having children gave Gillian an excuse to carry on reading children’s books, as well as a motivation to write them. She has a son and a daughter, and is married to Brian, who works for the New York Times Media Group.
Hobbies, Interests, and Enthusiasms
I am currently learning Italian (or trying to!) and have a secret fantasy about going to live on the beautiful island of Sicily one day, and having a little stone house with a lemon tree in the garden, and a view of the blue, blue sea! I am lucky, though, because I do live in a fantastic part of England, full of soft green fields and rolling hills and cottages that date back four hundred years.
I like to go for long walks and see the changes that the seasons bring, and I try to imagine how it all must have been years and years ago, and how the people lived. I was brought up in the north of England which is much more rugged and wild—the backdrop to Immortal.
I also enjoy being in the city—although I wouldn't want to live there all the time, it's fun to go window shopping or to big new exhibitions or shows, or just hang out in a coffee shop with a cappuccino and a notebook and watch the busy world go by.
Something I enjoy is painting. I have taken quite a few art classes and find it very creative to work with paint and charcoal and images instead of words, though somehow I can't help adding bits of poetry and scraps of words into my paintings, too… When I was at school, I was completely obsessed by the Pre-Raphaelites, and I love the way their art is so intertwined with poetry and stories. My best friend is an artist and she is incredibly inspiring to me.
I hate cooking but love the idea of being a good cook and welcoming all my friends and family to delicious meals. So I have lots of beautiful cookery books but I never get past the first couple of recipes. Every so often I get madly enthusiastic all over again, but it doesn't last.
When I am writing, I can't listen to music—I find it too distracting, but I love to listen to the radio when I am driving. I listen to pop music in the morning and classical music in the afternoon. That just seems right somehow. My son is really into music, so I enjoy sharing his enthusiasms. At the moment we are listening to Eminem, Akon, NDubz, Chipmunk, Kanye West, plus Greenday, Michael Jackson…the list goes on. My current absolute favorite is Paolo Nutini.
Another interest I have is this amazing charity called The Smile Train which carries out operations for disadvantaged children born with harelip/cleft palate. Sometimes I feel I don't realize how lucky I am, and so it's good to try and do something to help a child on the other side of the world who isn't so lucky. My family also tries to support Sightsavers International, who do simple cataract operations to restore the sight of hundreds of people in the developing world.
On a more self-indulgent note, I love to get to the theater whenever I can, and to the ballet, which I adore. In another fantasy life I would definitely be a ballerina!
I can't imagine getting through a day without reading or writing. I know it sounds a complete cliche, but there it is. I go to a writers' workshop once a week to meet other writers and exchange ideas and read work in progress, and that is hugely important to me. And every spare minute of the time at home I am reading, reading, reading…What would we do without stories?
Education
St Catharine's College, Cambridge University (MA in Englis
Ratings & Reviews
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 14, 2020
Mantora is back! Now she stolen the snow diamond from the Ice cavern in the Ice Kingdom imprisoning princess Artica. She’s left clues Amber and the northern SOS team to follow to rescue the princess and get the crystals back. The first one is in the Ice cavern and leads them to rescue some gentle sea giants.
Footnote: 1) In some places this is called ‘the first Clue’ in others it’s ‘the first Task. Either way it’s a cute story.
Fave scene: the narwhale helping.
Footnote: 1) In some places this is called ‘the first Clue’ in others it’s ‘the first Task. Either way it’s a cute story.
Fave scene: the narwhale helping.
December 4, 2013
The mermaids found an Eskimo sitting on ice. The ice had a little hole in it, there were ice walls in the water. There was a little Beluga whale in there, his name was Benji. He was trapped. He was the Eskimo's best friend. The mermaids used their tails to hit the ice and break it. Benji got out. Benji said there was a bright light in the ice. And Amber said, "Was it as bright as a diamond?" He said yes. She went in and she saw the light in a crack. Amber tried to get it but she couldn't. So Jess said, "What about my pet caterpillar?" The put the caterpillar in the crack and it got the diamond!!!...Katarina age 7
November 1, 2014
I really amber she acts like a true leader
November 7, 2016
Definite environmental undertones, but Avrie is enjoying them.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews