{"product_id":"the-siren-the-song-and-the-spy-isbn-9781536218053","title":"The Siren, the Song, and the Spy","description":"\u003cb\u003eIn this second vibrant fantasy from Maggie Tokuda-Hall, companion to her best-selling debut, \u003ci\u003eThe Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea\u003c\/i\u003e, a diverse resistance force fights to topple an empire in a story about freedom, identity, and decolonization.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBy sinking a fleet of Imperial Warships, the Pirate Supreme and their resistance fighters have struck a massive blow against the Emperor. Now allies from across the empire are readying themselves, hoping against hope to bring about the end of the conquerors’ rule and the rebirth of the Sea. But trust and truth are hard to come by in this complex world of mermaids, spies, warriors, and aristocrats. Who will Genevieve—lavishly dressed but washed up, half-dead, on the Wariuta island shore—turn out to be? Is warrior Koa’s kindness toward her admirable, or is his sister Kaia’s sharp suspicion wiser? And back in the capital, will pirate-spy Alfie really betray the Imperials who have shown him affection, especially when a duplicitous senator reveals xe would like nothing better?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Meanwhile, the Sea is losing more and more of herself as her daughters continue to be brutally hunted, and the Empire continues to expand through profits made from their blood. The threads of time, a web of schemes, shifting loyalties, and blossoming identities converge in Maggie Tokuda-Hall’s remarkable companion to \u003ci\u003eThe Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea\u003c\/i\u003e, as unlikely young allies work to forge a new and better world.A tragedy upends the worldview of a handmaid to an Imperial spy in this follow-up to 2020’s \u003ci\u003eThe Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea\u003c\/i\u003e. . . . No one escapes the Sea’s reckoning in this searing sequel. The cast is diverse in gender identity, sexual orientation, skin color, and socioeconomic status. Together, they tell a story in which justice isn’t attained through a cycle of vengeance but with the truth laid bare, paving the way toward reconciliation. Powerful and emotionally gratifying.\u003cbr\u003e—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs in the first volume, the diversity of the archipelagic world is again proudly, organically on display, with a variety of nationalities and cultural experiences shaping characters’ relationships to the Empire.. . . .  Most importantly, the novel’s decolonial imagination challenges readers to re-envision received notions of power, accountability, compassion, grief, liberty, and resistance.\u003cbr\u003e—The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe narrative weaves delicate intrigues, ever-shifting allegiances, and the evolution of identities as young allies band together to forge a new world and protect the sea’s mystical inhabitants from falling prey to commercial endeavors. . . . A high-fantasy novel that will resonate with those seeking an escape that also mirrors the complex realities of colonization and war.\u003cbr\u003e—School Library Journal\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Siren, the Song, and the Spy \u003c\/i\u003eis a welcome companion to Maggie Tokuda-Hall's ethereal \u003ci\u003eThe Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea\u003c\/i\u003e, and brings to a head the long-simmering conflict between the Resistance and the greedy Nipran Empire. . . . Magical prose flows smoothly and brings a sense of enchantment to the story. This strong offering about imperialist aggressions, rebels, and reprisal should effortlessly sweep readers into its realms as it makes a compelling plea for pacifism.\u003cbr\u003e—Shelf Awareness\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe follow-up to \u003ci\u003eThe Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea\u003c\/i\u003e cements Maggie Tokuda-Hall as one of the most unflinching voices in contemporary genre literature. This book contains the compassion we need alongside the reckoning we deserve.\u003cbr\u003e—Sarah Gailey, author of When We Were Magic\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThreaded with unconventional women and peacemaker men, ‘Siren’ imagines a world deeply imbued with Asian and Polynesian cultures, where kindness is as much of a weapon as kau.\u003cbr\u003e—The Star Tribune\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEmotive… compelling.\u003cbr\u003e—Tor.com\u003cb\u003eMaggie Tokuda-Hall\u003c\/b\u003e has an MFA in creative writing from the University of San Francisco and a strong cake-decorating game. She is the author of the young adult novel \u003ci\u003eThe Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea\u003c\/i\u003e,\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003ean indie bestseller and recipient of the Northern California Book Award in Children’s Literature, as well as the picture book \u003ci\u003eAlso an Octopus\u003c\/i\u003e, illustrated by Benji Davies, which won a Parents’ Choice Gold Award. Maggie Tokuda-Hall lives in Oakland, California, with her children, husband, and dog.\u003cb\u003ePrologue\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Genevieve\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003eGenevieve was not dead.\u003cbr\u003e   Thanks to the Emperor, she was alive. She was aware of her body, which lay on the sand, aware of the sun that cracked her skin. But she could not open her eyes.\u003cbr\u003e   Time had gone in all directions, and Genevieve did not know where in its vast landscape she had fallen. Sometimes she was at her mother’s dinner table. Then she was back aboard the Dove. She had heard the \u003ci\u003ewhumph \u003c\/i\u003eof a submerged explosion breaking the surface of the sea. The Lady Ayer called to her and bade she braid her hair. A boy her age held out his hand, his name lost in the blare of cannons and pistols firing.\u003cbr\u003e   The wind carried a name: Thistle.\u003cbr\u003e   She had not heard it aloud in years. She tried to move her chapped lips around the sound, but all that arose was a hiss. She coughed, her throat dry and aching.\u003cbr\u003e   She was alive.\u003cbr\u003e   Her survival was not the only impossible thing that had happened. The Imperials had lost. The Emperor’s ships capsized and crushed. The Pirate Supreme had escaped the Emperor once again. The Lady Ayer was dead.\u003cbr\u003e   The Lady Ayer was dead.\u003cbr\u003e   Genevieve had watched it happen, had seen her lady fall. It was the slowest and fastest thing she had ever witnessed: the sudden and terrible explosion of blood at her lady’s neck, the inexorable crumple of her body. The great Lady Ayer. The Emperor’s greatest spy. She watched it happen again and again, but she could never stop it from happening. Her mentor’s blood hung in the air, a fine mist.\u003cbr\u003e   Genevieve pushed her fingers into the wet sand. She made a fist. She could hear the Lady’s voice in her mind, willing her to move. To open her eyes. She blinked against the blazing sun.\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e   Sit up,\u003c\/i\u003e said the Lady.\u003cbr\u003e   Genevieve obeyed her orders, just as she always had. It did not matter if she was dead or alive, real or only in her mind; the Lady Ayer would always be her master, her mentor. Her voice was a comfort and a compass, and Genevieve dearly needed both. Her body screamed in dissent as she sat up, but Genevieve did not listen to it, not even as the world spun around her.\u003cbr\u003e   \u003ci\u003eYou need water. All the seawater you swallowed is making you sick. You need fresh water or else you’ll die.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   At this, Genevieve let out a mirthless laugh. There was no fresh water here. There was only the stinging seawater and the burning red sand. The laugh turned into another round of racking coughs.\u003cbr\u003e   \u003ci\u003eWhere is your pistol?\u003c\/i\u003e Genevieve felt down her leg. Still in its holster about her ankle. \u003ci\u003eWhere is your dagger?\u003c\/i\u003e She felt her thigh and found the handle of her dagger.\u003cbr\u003e   The effort of sitting up, of moving, of coughing had been too much. She lay back down.\u003cbr\u003e   \u003ci\u003eGet up,\u003c\/i\u003e said the Lady’s voice, but Genevieve could not. Tears did not fall, but she was crying all the same, ashamed of her disobedience. Lady Ayer had taught her better than that.\u003cbr\u003e   She saw Rake’s face, the face of her countryman, the face of her captor, saw it alight with triumph after he pulled the trigger on the gun that would kill her lady. She could feel her hate like something corporeal, something literally in her belly, heavy and pointed and hot.\u003cbr\u003e   Distantly, she could hear laughter, high--pitched and echoing over the dunes. It was Rake, she knew, the Pirate Supreme’s man. Rake laughing at the demise of the Emperor’s men. Rake laughing at her pain.\u003cbr\u003e   “Hey,” said a voice. He did not speak the Common Tongue, but Genevieve understood him even if she could not recall which language he spoke. “Hello?”\u003cbr\u003e   That accursed laughing, the giggling was closer now, so close she could feel hot gusts of breath against her burning skin. All around her was the stench of blood, of meat gone to rot. She flinched away from the reek of that breath, tried to blink open her eyes once more.\u003cbr\u003e   \u003ci\u003eYour pistol.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   She was in danger. The Lady had taught her to defend herself, and her voice was insistent now, urging her to grab her weapon. Genevieve was no damsel in distress. She had been molded by the Lady Ayer; she was her right hand. \u003cbr\u003e   She could see the man only as a shadow that loomed enormous over her, backlit by the cruel sun, which added to her confusion. \u003cbr\u003e   There was a man there, but his voice was absent, and the Lady’s voice was there, but she was absent. The world had become nothing but a flurry of noises and shapes and pain, and Genevieve could hardly parse it.\u003cbr\u003e   The figure nudged her with his foot, not hard but enough to bring what little remained of her last meal—​eaten when? days ago maybe—​in Genevieve’s belly up and burning through her throat. She retched, and she was distantly aware of his sounds of consternation and disgust. It was, if uncomfortable, also a perfect cover. She curled into herself on one side and let her hand drift to her ankle.\u003cbr\u003e   She saw the animal before she saw the man, its great square head too close to her own, sniffing at her with interest. It let out a high giggle, chittering and chilling. She startled away from it, and the animal startled away from her, but not far enough. It bared its teeth at her, and she knew at once where the stench of blood had come from.\u003cbr\u003e   \u003ci\u003eHyena.\u003c\/i\u003e The familiars of Wariuta warriors, the keepers of the Red Shore.\u003cbr\u003e Genevieve remembered. She had seen etchings and paintings of the hyenas: vicious, horrible animals with blood dripping from their maws, their gnashing teeth that could take off a man’s leg. When the warriors came of age, they found their familiar, and from then on, the two would be inseparable, and deadly. The warriors of the Red Shore had killed many Imperial men, even if their means were crude. But they did not have pistols. Genevieve’s pistol was there, on her ankle. She let her fingers wrap around it.\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e   It’s him or you.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   If this man was a warrior, then he would kill her.\u003cbr\u003e   “Are you OK?” he asked. He was easily twice as big as she was. If it came to hand--to--hand, she would lose unless she was extraordinarily lucky or he was extraordinarily stupid. She could not take that chance.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003ci\u003e Shoot.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   With what little strength she had, she turned on the man and pointed her pistol at him. He held his hands up. Genevieve squeezed the trigger.","brand":"Candlewick","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303815958757,"sku":"NP9781536218053","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781536218053.jpg?v=1767741532","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-siren-the-song-and-the-spy-isbn-9781536218053","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}