Real Mermaids Don't Wear Toe Rings

Gr 5—8—Jade, 14, finally gets her first period—in the dressing room at the mall. She shoves napkins in her panties and makes a beeline to the drugstore, where her dad Googles "menstruation" on his Blackberry and fills up a shopping cart with feminine hygiene products, pain pills, and bath salts. Embarrassed and blushing, Jade runs into handsome Luke Martin and can't put a sentence together. When she gets home, she takes a bath and grows a tail. Her dad explains that her mother, who went missing a year ago, was a mermaid. A few days later, Jade eats lunch by the lake and hears her mother's voice from the water. She enters the lake and transforms into a mermaid. Jade learns that her mother was kidnapped by convict merfolk and tortured in fresh water and is determined to find her. Jade is a likeable, sarcastic, plus-sized teen dealing with human and mermaid emotions in this fantasy (Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, pap. 2010) by Helene Boudreau. Jen Taylor's vocal characterization is a perfect match for of Jade's rollercoaster of emotions. This suspenseful and slightly romantic audiobook will garner fans.—Samantha Larsen Hastings, Riverton Library, UT