Landfall

by Betty Levin

When Liddy visits her pen pal on an island off the Scottish coast, she becomes involved in a chain of events that reveals the truth of the islanders' legends about seals.

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1979

About the author

Betty Levin lives in Lincoln, Massachusetts, as a sheep farmer, border collie trainer, and children's novelist whose many books include The Keeping Room, The Ice Bear, The Trouble With Gramary (winner of the Judy Lopez Memorial Foundation Award), Fire in the Wind, Island Bound, Shadow-Catcher, Away to Me, Moss and its sequels, and Shoddy Cove.

She has taught at Pine Manor Open College, Simmons College Center for the Study of Children's Literature, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Radcliffe Seminars. She is a former fellow of the Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College.

Betty was a founding member of the Board of Children's Literature New England, and in 2000 received the Hope S. Dean Memorial Award from the Foundation for Children's Books.

Reviews

[Kirah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this when I was probably 13 or 14 years old and I loved it! It's about a girl from America who goes on a trip to the Irish coast to visit her penpal, Brigid Tulloch. The two become close friends and Liddy learns that there is something strangely mysterious about her friend's family. The Tullochs are very fond of their Irish ancestry and their story alludes to the old Irish myth of the selkie of the sea. Brigid's brother, Michael, is interested in scuba diving and he dives with a team of marine archaeologists who are visiting the area in search of legendary spear and shipwreck. The problem is that a curious seal keeps getting in their way. Liddy befriends the seal, who eventually leads her to finding the answer to the mystery if the Tulloch family.