The Lampfish of Twill 
"Eric," said his Aunt Opal very early one morning during the Season of Calm. "I was thinking you might set the crab traps today on Cantrip's Point. The wind is down a bit and the tides are running low. I don't suppose you'll fall into any trouble."
"Of course I won't," Eric replied, looking across the breakfast table at his aunt's worn face. "Can I take the big net, too? There's a deep place off the rocks where I think a lampfish lives."
"A lampfish! Well! We could certainly use some new hooks. By all means, take the net and sound the bell to tell the others. But do be careful, Eric, of the swell around the point. Cantrip's Spout is just offshore and, Season of Calm or not, it's churning in its bed."
For hundreds of years, the people of Twill have hunted the strange and beautiful lampfish. The gruesome ritual is time-honored, and Eric, 12, is eager for his own kill, until he meets Ezekial Cantrip, the only person to have gone down The Spout, the terrible whirlpool that boils off shore, and returned alive. Ever since, the old man has been a bit crazy. At first Eric doesn't believe what he says about the lampfish coming from another world beneath the ocean, rising up the whirlpool into Twill's waters. Then Zeke takes him out in a boat for a night vigil, and the two are caught in The Spout's powerful current.
Orchard Books, 1991, 128 pages, Ages 10-14. Illustrated by Wendy Anderson Halperin. Paperback: Scholastic Apple. 1992.
A School Library Best Book of
the Year
A Parent's Magazine Best Children's Book
New York Times Book Rev. Best Children's Book
Boston Globe Best Children's Book, 1991
Pick of the Lists: American Bookseller Association
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