The Mermaid's Shoes

PreS-Gr 1—On her last day at the seaside, Mia finds a pair of flippers abandoned on the beach. She decides that they are mermaid's feet and brings them home, wears them to bed, and dreams of the sea. She wears them to the playground but is told she cannot be a mermaid, as she has no tail. Mia makes one from her mother's old skirt, then goes off to find the sea. She goes to the zoo and finds the aquarium but is frightened by the sharks. She then goes to the river, which is too deep, and then to the museum, which is too dry. At last she finds a fountain and happily poses on top. The last sentence of the book reads, "And that's how it began," depicting someone taking the girl's picture with a tablet device, followed by two pages of children from around the world dressed as mermaids posted on a Facebook page. Mia appears to be very young, possibly preschool or kindergarten, and it is arguable whether a child that age could or should have her own Facebook page. The appropriate audience for the book is unlikely to fully grasp the significance of the social-media angle. The mixed-media illustrations are passable but not enough to save the floundering story line.—Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ