Gail’s shadow slips away on her twelfth birthday, as big sister Kay sleeps away her life in new sadness, and then Kay’s shadow leaves too, and Gail must find them both or lose Kay forever!

Oh, their shadows head for Oyster Cave! She’s heard stories about the caverns – kids wandering in their underground maze for days in that deep darkness where selkies leave their skins to walk among land-folk.

Mhirran and Francis are at ease in Oyster Cave’s tunnels, helping Gail get unlost, but the sister and brother aren’t so helpful about the shadows.

Despite the storm heading for their small Scottish island, Gail has to keep searching – in and out of the cave tunnels, through the forest toward the two Storm Sisters rocks standing tall off the rocky shore.

Why did Francis leave an endangered freshwater pearl on the map he drew in the cave dirt?
Is Mhirran right about the secrets her brother is hiding in his workshed?
How can Gail become a marine biologist if she’s afraid to swim without Kay?

The storm, the map, the waterfall, the secrets, their shadows – it’s up to Gail to puzzle out everything before Kay’s self slips away too.

When someone you love is hurting, how do you know what will help them?
**kmm

Book info: The Girl Who Lost Her Shadow / Emily Ilett. Kelpies/ Floris Books, 2019 (2020 USA). [author site] [author interview] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.