Trot & Cap'n Bill

Young Trot and the old captain, peg-legged Cap'n Bill, might seem like odd friends, but they are constant companions and Cap'n Bill taught her to love and appreciate the ocean. Trot was especially fascinated by the idea of mermaids and talked about them often with Cap'n Bill, who warned that no one who had met a mermaid had ever lived to tell the tale. One day while out sailing around, the pair is greeted by a beautiful mermaid who extends an invitation for them to come and visit their underwater kingdom and even become mermaids themselves for the adventure. Trot and Cap'n Bill meet a wonderful variety of characters along their underwater adventure -- eels and codfish and crabs, among others. After a marvelous and exciting time with the mermaids, the only mystery left is whether or not they will be the first to live to tell the tale of meeting the mermaids!

The novel involves Mayre Griffiths, nicknamed Trot, or sometimes Tiny Trot, is a little girl who lives on the coast of southern California. Her father is the captain of a sailing schooner, and her constant companion is Cap'n Bill Weedles, a retired sailor with a wooden leg. The novel involves Mayre Griffiths, nicknamed Trot, or sometimes Tiny Trot, is a little girl who lives on the coast of southern California. Her father is the captain of a sailing schooner, and her constant companion is Cap'n Bill Weedles, a retired sailor with a wooden leg. Lyman Frank Baum was born in Chittenango, New York, on May 15, 1856. Over the course of his life, Baum raised fancy poultry, sold fireworks, managed an opera house, opened a department store, and an edited a newspaper before finally turning to writing. In 1900, he published his best-known book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Eventually he wrote fifty-five novels, including thirteen Oz books, plus four "lost" novels, eighty-three short stories, more than two hundred poems, an unknown number of scripts, and many miscellaneous writings. Baum died on May 6, 1919.

One day a young girl, Trot, encounters a strange young boy with a big umbrella. She learns his name is Button Bright and he uses this umbrella to go on long journeys. Trot's friend, Cap'n Bill, joins the two children and they venture to a fantastical island, which they call Sky Island, as it is halfway in the sky. The island is split into two sides - the blue side and the pink side. They arrive first at the blue side - a dangerous and hostile place. The leader of the blue side, the Boolooroo of the Blues, is an evil man who punishes people by chopping them in half and sewing mismatched pieces back together. The Boolooroo captures Trot, Button, and Cap'n Bill and gives Trot as a slave to his daughters. The three eventually escape and make their way over to the pink side of the island, a much happier but still dangerous place. The laws of Sky Island insist that the visitors be thrown off the side of the island, and even the leader cannot save them. Trot, Button, and Cap'n Bill seem to be in an inescapable place of danger and they will need someone or something very powerful to save them from Sky Island.