The Girl and the Mermaid

May 1, 2024
Love--and mermaid magic--help a young girl keep her grandmother's memories alive. Alina and Granny live in a lighthouse, which Alina operates; Granny has grown "too old" to do so. At night, over tea, Granny tells Alina tales of mermaids, but her memories are fading and, with them, the stories. Alina wishes she could do something to preserve them. One day a mermaid appears and invites Alina to swim "through swirling, whirling tides, to where your Granny's stories are, and many more besides." Alina bravely follows through seaweed forests and past sunken ships until they reach "a city filled with endless light," where the merfolk keep stories in an ever-flowing well. The mermaid gives Alina some of Granny's stories, and Alina realizes that the best way to preserve stories is to share them. She pours the stories into the lighthouse lamp, projecting them across the night sky. Granny and Alina are content, knowing that the stories will live on. This gentle narrative is presented in slightly uneven verse, with some distracting word choices ("pirate chiefs" rather than "captains," for instance). Both Granny's memory loss and the resolution feel somewhat simplified, though the bond between the two is heartfelt. The graceful, tangerine- and teal-hued images are appealing, and fans of merfolk will enjoy poring over the visuals. Granny and Alina are brown-skinned, and the mermaid is light-skinned; other merfolk are diverse in skin tone. A poignant testament to the power of story. (Picture book. 3-7)

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July 1, 2024

PreS-Gr 2-A tender reminder of the power of stories and family, this magical mermaid tale focuses on lighthouse keeper Alina. She lives in the lighthouse with her granny, the original lighthouse keeper and storyteller, but Granny's memory fades and Alina becomes the caregiver. While this subtext is glossed over with uneven rhyming stanzas, the love between Alina and Granny is beautifully expressed in Massini's art. Mixed media watercolor and pencil collage renders layers of soft vignettes of Alina braiding a crown of roses into Granny's hair as they talk quietly over tea. Muted tones and soft light weave an intimacy that is not established by the rhyme scheme, which is inelegantly placed on the page. Rather than place the text as a stanza, as it is elsewhere, it is typeset as a couplet. When a mermaid from Granny's yarns appears, Alina dives in and discovers an underwater world, obtaining a "story shell" of memories to bring back for Granny, and the inspiration to share it with others through the lighthouse. Symbolism of the shell in the art and text provides opportunities to use this for story hours to ignite a shared experience. Merpeople are diverse in skin color; Alina and Granny are brown-skinned. VERDICT An additional selection, mostly for fans of merpeople and underwater adventures.-Rachel Zuffa

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