Island of the Aunts

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Island of the Aunts is a children's book written by Eva Ibbotson.

Spoilers Below

An uncharted island is home to five humans - widower Captain Harper, an old man at the ripe age of one hundred and three, Sybil, a strange cousin who supposedly can predict the future, a chef named Art who supposedly committed murder, and the three Aunts
(Etta is a tall woman with a small moustache. She is very physically fit and owns thirty or so pairs of the exact same clothes. She is the eldest of the sisters living on the island, and can be a bit intimidating.
Coral is a very artistic woman who gathers shells and dances tango by the light of the full moon.
Myrtle is the youngest and probably most sensitive. She keeps orphaned ducklings in her socks and plays cello to a seal named Herbert. )
along with... other animals.
They take care of injured and sick creatures, but the work is getting too much for them and go to London to kidnap children. They think that adults can't keep a secret, and in Etta's words, 'It's not really a kidnap. It's more of a childsnatch'. Whatever it is, though, it's illegal.
Etta kidnaps a young girl named Minette whose parents are separated. Myrtle brings a boy named Fabio(who previously lived in Brazil) from London(where he is learning to be an "english gentleman" at the horrible Graymarsh Towers) to the island. And Myrtle is forced to bring a boy named Lambert(whom she thinks is horrid) after he sniffs something drugged.
On the island, the children are quickly put to work, including carrying stranded jellyfish back to the sea and holding an eel with scabies. One day, though, Etta takes them to the de-oiling shed -- and everything changes after that.
Instead of oiled seabirds, there is a small family of mermaids, including Twins Oona and Queenie, Great Grandmother Ursula, and a spoiled child named Walter.
After meeting the mermaids, nothing is the same. They're soon meeting the Stoorworm, a wingless Icelandic dragon, the egg-bound boobrie (a bird apparently similar to the dodo only huger than a dodo) and even talking with the selkies, seals like Herbert who can change into humans!
After some time, the Great kraken begins swimming the seas to bring peace to the waters once more. However, he leaves his child with the Aunts. The boobrie lays her eggs, an Estonian naak (ghost) appears, and Ethelgonda, another ghost, appears over her grave.
Lambert, though, finally gets ahold of his cellphone, which he uses to call Mr. Sprott and ruin everything. But, at the last minute, aboard Mr. Sprott's ship, the Hurricane, the Kraken rescues his son, and turns back and rescues everyone else.