Request #351 From Kate

70s. I read a book which I think was called “The Selkie”. There are several books I can google with this name but without the author’s name I don’t think any are right. The story was I think a first-person account of a teenage boy who turned out to be a Selkie and able to be a seal (which he only finds out part way through.) He lives in a (Scottish?) island community and has a younger brother Bran who is selected to be a sacrifice at the start of the story. I think the book is mostly him trying to stop the brother’s sacrifice but I don’t recall much more except I loved it. I think it was probably a Knight (reading club) book. 70s. This was a book from our library that I remember borrowing, reading many times and then taking it out for another period because I loved it so much. Sadly the memory has faded. It’s about a maybe 12 yr old boy from our world that gets pulled into a fantasy world. He ends up leading an army and battling with a special hero sword. Can’t recall if he was a king’s heir or if I added that. I recall the enemies being ‘orcs’ which is the first time I came across the word.  So I guess there was a Tolkien vibe to it. The boy (I vaguely think his name might be Peter but I may be mixing up with Narnia) hence became an orc-slayer. I wondered since finding lotr how they could use ‘orc’ but maybe the term is earlier than both (common source). Again from the 70s. Set in Britain I think. It’s the story of separated twins. The protagonist (Martin I think) has grown up with a twin (Sean or Steve?) and other siblings. Has never felt he fitted with the family and is not like his twin. Then one day he runs into a boy that looks identical to him. Turns out there was a mix up at the hospital and one of the twins went home with another family. I recall the emotion of the reveal. Also the emotion of the two boys with the wrong families always feeling separate from them. And the process of re-integrating to the right families.