A review by corncobwebs
Keeper by Kathi Appelt

Keeper's flighty mother left her when she was just three, leaving the girl with a makeshift family: Signe, Dogie, Mr. Beauchamps, BD, Too, and Captain - all the human and non-human residents of Oyster Ridge Road. To lessen the pain of her mother's disappearance, Signe tells Keeper that she is a mermaid who swam away when Keeper was just a tiny child. And for the most part, Keeper is happy with her cobbled-together family, despite the absence of her biological mother. How can you miss someone that you barely remember? But Keeper's family is nearly dashed to pieces (or so she thinks) one day when everything goes wrong, and it all seems to be her fault. The only way Keeper can think of to make things right is to find her mermaid mother and ask her for advice. So off she goes in Dogie's little boat, the Scamper, floating out to sea with BD and Captain and a storm brewing in the distance. Though her mother isn't really a mermaid, there's still some magic in the air that helps to deliver Keeper, BD, and Captain safely back to shore - and the ordeal of Keeper's disappearance brings the whole family closer together.

Here's something that I found really interesting about this book. It has an implied gay couple, but I haven't heard any censorship talk surrounding this title. Usually when there's anything remotely gay in children's lit, there's some radically conservative parent who throws a fit. I read recently that Luv Ya Bunches was pulled from Scholastic Book Fairs because some parents objected to one of the characters having lesbian parents. I wonder, then, how this book is different? How can some books with gay elements fly under the radar, and others get bashed?