By Franny Billingsley; 162 pages; Simon & Schuster, 1999; $16. Grades 5-8.
This startling original fantasy, with roots in English selkie tales (about seals transformed into humans), is compelling and lyrical. Fifteen-year-old orphan Corinna tells the tale, as written in her Folk Record diary. Disguised as Corin so no one will know she is a girl, Corinna is sought out by the dying Lord Merton to be the new Folk Keeper of his island estate, at Cliffsend. Always male, Folk Keepers ...