Reviews

Beautifully told "take" on the Little Mermaid, with Wiesner's wonderful illustrations. Setting this up as a mystery of a mermaid being held as an aquarium attraction by a fisherman (but who can mysteriously shed her tail if she go outs of the water) was pretty cool. She also can't speak. The friendship that develops between her and a girl named Livia is a nice touch.

It's a quick read and a magical story.

erine's review

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3.0

I like David Wiesner best when he's not doing humans. So the illustrations here did not resonate as much as I was hoping because of the style. That said, the spreads that focused more on the aquarium or the ocean were very appealing.

The story itself left more questions for me at the end. It is an unusual combination of realistic fiction and fantasy - and I admittedly had trouble figuring out exactly where that line was being drawn

Spoiler

for example, if Mira is really a mermaid, was Neptune really Neptune? or was he just a sad little man who stole a baby mermaid?

.

I wanted to like this more than I did, but I also found myself thinking about this story for longer than usual after I finished.