Daughter of the Deep

by Rick Riordan

Nature’s creative power is far beyond man’s instinct of destruction. —Jules Verne, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Captain Nemo, he’s a character created by the French author Jules Verne in the nineteenth century. Verne wrote about him in two novels, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1870) and The Mysterious Island (1875), in which Nemo commands the world’s most advanced submarine, the Nautilus.

Captain Nemo was smart, well-educated, courteous, and massively wealthy. He was also angry, bitter, and dangerous. Imagine a combination of Bruce Wayne, Tony Stark, and Lex Luthor.

there’s one more critical thing to consider. Verne made Captain Nemo an Indian prince whose people suffered under European colonialism. His character explores themes that are just as critical now as they were in Victorian times. How do you find a voice and power when society denies you those privileges? How do you fight injustice? Who gets to write the history books and decide who were the “good guys” and the “bad guys”?

I suppose I should get this out of the way. Harding-Pencroft is a five-year high school. We’re divided into four houses, based on the results of our aptitude tests. We call the academy HP for short. And, yes, we’ve heard all the Harry Potter jokes. Thanks anyway.

You could put him in charge of a toddler soccer team and he’d get delusions of grandeur. He’d have the kids marching in perfect unison within a week. Then he’d declare war on a neighboring toddler team.

the impossible is merely the possible for which we don’t yet know the science.”

Top sits at my feet and wags his tail. He gives me his most soulful stare. I’m a very good boy. I almost killed someone earlier.

I’ve just been made acting captain of a ship with a crew of twenty freshmen, a dog, a dolphin, and one comatose adult.

Top will follow Ester around and look cute. Socrates will come and go as he pleases, eating fish and playing in the ocean. Why do the animals get the best jobs?

I remember a humor column by Dave Barry that my dad read to me when I was little, about how fish only have two thoughts, Food? and Yikes! But there is a third fish thought, which this sunfish’s expression relays perfectly: Y’all humans are weird.

Why do I keep missing my chances to say good-bye?

Without my friends, I don’t know how I would have coped.

When I first realized Ester had such a great memory, I asked her why she needed the note cards. She explained it like this: She can remember an entire symphony orchestra, a hundred musicians playing at once. But if you ask her what the oboe was doing in the second bar of the third movement, she can’t immediately unravel that information from all the other sounds she absorbed. The cards help her make sense of the music. She can color-code the brass section, so to speak, and keep it separate from the strings and the percussion. She can unwrap the symphony and study it instrument by instrument, line by line. Without her index cards, the world is a scary, overwhelming place.

I’ve found out the hard way that with grief, like with menstrual cramps, I just need to keep moving.

I switch to Italian. “Piacere.” “Ah, parli la lingua del bell’paese!” “Certo, sono un Delfino.” “Ottimo! Prego, entrate tutti! Anche povero Hewett, portatelo. La mia prossima pagnotta di pane sta bruciando!”

How to make twenty freshmen hyperactive: 1. Give them access to an espresso machine. 2. Offer them a safe haven after seventy-two hours of running from death. 3. Feed them a home-cooked meal made by an orangutan. 4. Tell them that tomorrow, they will get to see a make-believe submarine from the 1800s that is actually not make-believe.

He is part emotional-support animal, part con artist.

One of the problems with being multilingual is that sometimes you second-guess yourself about the meanings of words.

The first thing you want to install in your high-tech super sub? A pipe organ, of course.

anything for menstrual cramps. Mine have passed for now, but periods are like General Douglas MacArthur in World War II: They shall return.

I have trouble taking compliments. I tend to assume the other person is just trying to be nice or sparing my feelings.

“Nautilus,” I say in Bundeli. (In case you’re wondering, the word is notilas. Huge surprise.)

“Engine room, report,” I say. “How are we looking?” “Well,” Nelinha says, “the glowing things are still glowing. The humming things are still humming. I think we’re good.”

our labels always depend on who’s doing the labeling.

Absolute power can corrupt anyone.

the Nautilus looks like she belongs here—a gentle giant, a queen of the deep.

I never realized how much of leadership is learning to sound confident when you’re actually terrified.

I believe that communication can solve any problem if the parties have the will and the intelligence to learn to understand each other.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander during World War II: Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.

the Chinese general Sun Tzu: Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.

The hardest thing about making a stupid bluff is reminding yourself that your opponent doesn’t know it’s a stupid bluff.

The skiff responds like a Maserati. (Full disclosure: I have never driven a Maserati.)

him. At least underwater I can cry as much as I want. The ocean doesn’t care about a few more drops of salt water.

Most animals, including humans, can sense fear. They can smell weakness.