The Sea Sirens series is a set of fantasy graphic novels written by Amy Chu and illustrated by Janet K. Lee, published by Viking Press. The series currently consists of Sea Sirens (2019) and Sky Island (2020), and the possibility of a third volume has not been ruled out. The series focuses on a California surfer girl named Trot, who is a reimagining of L. Frank Baum's heroine Mayre "Trot" Griffiths. While the first volume is broadly based on characters and situations from Baum's The Sea Fairies (1911) in which Trot first appeared, the second volume is an original story which follows the first volume's action directly, rather than an adaptation of Baum's Sky Island (1912).
Sea Sirens[]
Trot, a lifelong resident of Huntington Beach, California, lives with her mother, who manages a restaurant, and her grandfather Van Nguyen, a Vietnamese immigrant who is showing signs of dementia. She has a fat, one-eyed cat named Cap'n Bill whom she found as a stray. Trot is an expert surfer, who takes Cap'n Bill riding on her board, while Grandpa Van loves to fish.
When their board is hit by a rogue wave, Cap'n Bill sinks down into the ocean, and Trot rushes to rescue him. They come upon an amazing site - a battle waged by seahorse-mounted mermaids on one side and large snakes on the other. Cap'n Bill angrily swats at a snake, tipping the battle in the mermaids' favor. The mermaid commander Clia, against the advice of her comrade Merla, breathes into Trot's and Bill's mouths so that they can breathe underwater. The two are then brought to the palace of Clia's mother Queen Aquareine, where they learn that the mermaids, properly called Sirens, are fighting a traditional war against the Serpents, who are ruled by King Anko. In the queendom of the Sirens, Cap'n Bill can speak. At a lavish royal reception, Trot finds that Grandpa Van is among the guests, having followed her down into the ocean.
Following a pretty fish, Grandpa Van is captured by Serpents. One of the Queen's people finds a note saying "I have the old man. King Anko." Aquareine refuses to mount a rescue expedition, which might be perceived as an act of war, so Clia, Trot, and Bill go off on their own. In the Serpent Kingdom's capital, located in a deep trench, the three explorers presented themselves to the guards and are taken to the king. In the throne room, they find Grandpa Van playing board games with a young human boy who wears a crown.
The boy was a cabin boy on a ship which was sunk by pirates in the 18th century. He was rescued by the Serpents' powerful King Anko, the kingdom's longest reigning monarch. After thousands of years of rule, Anko was dying, so he adopted the boy and transferred part of his soul into him. Thus, the boy succeeded Anko as king and shares his name, being considered his reincarnation. His favorite hobby is collecting games which fall off of sailing ships. Anko and Clia soon realize that their war has been based on blind fear and misunderstanding.
Suddenly, a Siren army approaches, and Merla had been pressured into telling Aquareine about the rescue mission. Clia convinces her mother and Anko to end the war. Trot and Grandpa Van decide it is time to go home to California. Cap'n Bill at first wants to stay and be a nobleman in the Siren queendom, but ultimately returns with them. They return in a vessel that resembles a hot air balloon, invented by Anko.
Trot, Van, and Bill are picked up by a Coast Guard cutter and reunited with her mother. In the real world, only an hour has passed since their adventure began. At home, Trot finds that Bill has concealed the Queen's pearl in his gullet, indicating that their adventures have not ended.
Sky Island[]
As a middle school year ends, Trot has been writing to Merla and Clia, delivering the messages via bottles. The Queen's pearl allows Cap'n Bill to retain the power of speech. Officer Kim, a friendly neighborhood policeman, helps retrieve Grandpa Van when he gets into his wandering mode. Van's babbling about his adventures with the Sirens is taken by the locals as the charming ramblings of a senile old man.
The bottle system nets a message from King Anko saying "Meet us urgent," and directions to Smuggler's Cove down the coast. At the appointed place, Trot, Van, and Bill encounter an enormous mechanical squid, which is Anko's ship the Nautilus. Clia is Anko's passenger, and informs Trot that Merla has been kidnapped by a mysterious vessel. A Siren magic turns Clia into a human, but Anko refuses to leave the ocean, fearing that his centuries of magical non-aging would be broken and he would turn to dust on entering the land world.
Clia draws the insignia of the ship that took Merla. Grandpa Van recognizes it as the logo of Sky Island, a once-popular amusement park that shut down sometime before Trot was born. He takes the girls and cat to visit his friend Rosalie Rodriguez, the daughter of the park's owner, who lives in a mansion with a number of cats. She tells them that her father, a World War II naval engineer, was a great artist and inventor, who poured his soul into the park. For years it was the most popular amusement park in southern California, but fell on hard times due to changing trends in the market. In 1981, her father sold the park to a rich businessman named Dr. Krieg Alphonse Buluru, and died soon after.
Clia tells Rosalie that their friend Merla was kidnapped and taken to Sky Island, but the police cannot be involved. Trot says that Merla is a cat, which gets Rosalie righteously angered enough to mount a rescue expedition herself. Rosalie, Van, Trot, Clia, and Bill travel in a small boat, while Anko's Nautilus follows at a safe depth. They find that Sky Island is surprisingly well maintained despite having been closed to the public for over 40 years, and has an aquarium of Dr. Buluru's collection of sea creatures. They are soon discovered by security, and Rosalie and Van act as if they are senile tourists who mistook the island for Disneyland. Trot, Clia, and Bill find a tank where Merla is held prisoner. Merla has been brainwashed into believing that Buluru is her benevolent protector.
Dr. Buluru enters the room and explains that he has been collecting from a young age. When he found that Mr. Rodriguez refused to sell, insisting that Rosalie inherit the park, Buluru simply stole the deed and replaced it with a forgery transferring the property to himself. He then closed the park to the public and made it an attraction strictly for his personal use. Capturing a live Sea Siren was his crowning glory. He then throws the intruders into the shark tank, but they are rescued by Merla, who now sees that Buluru is not the nice man he pretends to be.
Cap'n Bill, being small enough to avoid detection, is sent to deliver a message to King Anko. Setting the Nautilus in attack mode, Anko creates a large wave which throws Buluru into the water just before he can murder Rosalie and Van. Trot refuses to let Buluru drown, and turns him over to Officer Kim, who was summoned by Anko's anonymous tip, and arrests Buluru for the numerous business frauds to which he confessed during his villainous tirade.
As the newly confirmed rightful owner of the island, Rosalie finds that most of what Buluru built will be quite beneficial once the park can be reopened to the public. The only things she removes are the hideous statues of himself which Buluru had erected at crucial stops in the park. Rosalie has also deduced the truth about Sirens, and agrees to keep their secret. She also has a special house for cats built in the park.
Sometime later, Trot, Van, and Bill are summoned to a banquet in Aquareine's palace. Merla is appointed Ambassador to the Above, and it is anticipated that she will frequently visit Trot.
Trivia[]
Dr. Buluru of Sky Island is named after the Boolooroo, the lead villain of Baum's Sky Island, whose plot was completely jettisoned by the graphic novel.
Inconsistencies[]
Rosalie introduces herself as a member of the Rodriguez family, but the legal deed names her father as Walter D. Alvarez.