This young adult novel uses traditional fairy tale conventions to tell the story of a spunky heroine. Fairy tales have a number of conventions: ambiguous time, fantastic characters, universal themes, use of magic, trial or quest, and royalty. Although The Changeling Sea is set in the past, like most fairy tales, there is no real sense of historical time. Whether it is the seventeenth century or eighteenth century, it really makes no difference in a fairy tale. The setting by the sea seems real enough except for the fact that the cast of characters includes a mermaid and a sea dragon, as well as a magician. Many of the characters at first seem to be stock one-dimensional figures who could appear in any fairy tale. The themes of coming-of-age and searching for true love are popular in fairy tales.

However, unlike many fairy tales, Peri is not a...