King Ocean's Flute — Lucy Coats

On an Italian hillside, Paulo the shepherd boy plays his wooden flute badly, but thinks he is a match for King Ocean himself. Before he knows it he's swept beneath the waves to an underwater world of dolphins and merfolk. Here King Ocean challenges him to play not only all the songs of the earth, but the songs of the sea, or else stay captive and polish mermaid's scales and scrub salt off the seabed for seven long years. A lyrical story complemented by Peter Malone's stunning fine art illustrations.