Siblings Emma, Jonah, and William like to sail their boat, the “Peregrine,” around the bay. While sailing one day, they’re caught in a storm and are all knocked out. They wake up with seaweed in their mouths and eventually reach the shore. While on this mysterious island, the three siblings are separated. They each encounter different creatures, including zombie pirates, evil mermaids, and ghostly ship figureheads. They must figure out how to find each other so they can return to their real world.

This was a fun adventure story. At the beginning, Emma, Jonah, and William bickered a lot. Their relationship evolved when they were thrown into danger, so they learned how important they were to one another.

There was a lot of ship lore in this story. The kids knew how to drive their own sailboat. The ghostly figureheads that Emma met on the island were based on true stories of shipwrecks or curses. I’m really curious to learn more about those real stories after reading this one.

Blackwells and the Bring Deep was a great middle grade adventure!

Thank you Dundurn for providing a copy of this book.

Blackwells and the Briny Deep is a fun and adventurous story to read with the little ones. We read this story during the summer's rainy weekend and we enjoyed it so much! My son would look forward to knowing what happened with the characters and we can't wait to read more from this author. I recommend this book to all adults and kids who enjoy wicked monsters and a sense of adventure.

This is a pretty weird story but also a good story. I love stories set at sea. The Blackwell siblings had quite the adventure as they came across a storm, mermaids, and pirates. My biggest complaint for this story is that the siblings repeatedly thought the adventure was a dream. I just found that a bit annoying as it happened it every chapter. Other than that, really good story.

What a crazy adventure! Imagine a leisure sailboat outing gone wrong. With thrills from zombie pirates and monster mermaids to cursed figureheads and wandering sea spirits on a shipwreck island…it is all part of the Blackwells adventure!

The siblings William, Jonah and Emma are about to embark on a short sailing trip across the bay to meet their father. As with many siblings, they have their little quarrels…especially twins Jonah and Emma.
Packed with coolers they are getting ready for the trip. Almost immediately after stepping onto the Peregrine, Emma trips and her beloved conch shell she had found in Florida falls overboard…and nobody was able to catch it before it hit the water. Perhaps if that didn’t happen, their day would have turned out normal…

After they finally left the shore, Emma sees a hand smothered in seaweed poking out of the water, holding a conch shell. Could that be hers? And whose hand was that?

Suddenly a storm is brewing and their sailboat is enveloped in fog. Out of nowhere comes a large brigantine with black tattered sails over the horizon, directly at them. The Mermaid Queen…and it was on fire too!

As the radio equipment and cellphones fail the Blackwells, and a strange boy hops onto the Peregrine to steal their flag, the adventure only begins for the three of them. This was not what they had expected, and each of the siblings has to find their way to make it back after getting separated and stranded on a mysterious island.
How will this all end? And what does a dolphin have to do with it all?

***

This was quite an adventure. Tying in myths and a few teeth grinding moments, it made this a fun and addicting book to read. I bet any upper elementary kid would love this quick paced and exciting story

At the end of the book, the author makes reference to famous ghost ship stories like The Flying Dutchman and offers a glossary of basic boating terminology.

Very fun, not too scary. Definitely right for young readers that love adventure as well as reluctant ones as the content is jam packed and enthralling to read.
Enjoy

I received a digital copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review. All opinions are my own. Thank you!

DNF at 20%.

The style of this just wasn't my cup of tea, nor was it what I was expecting. This is solely a personal preference, not a mark on the author or the book itself.

(Rating below solely based of off what I did read and considering the overall concept of the story.)

This is a story about the Blackwell children who, on a day out sailing, encounter a storm that takes them to an island where mermaids and pirates (or should i say zombie pirates) must be battled to save themselves and other magical creatures that have been cursed by the mermaid queen.

I always get concerned when reading a book that is part of a series when you haven't read the others, however it is definitely a stand alone read, which I thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend to middle grade readers who can handle a bit of scary/creepy/ghoul, but not too much.