Mermaid Dreams

March 1, 2019
Little Maya loves the beach, but her parents want to relax, so she is left to find a playmate or entertain herself.Too shy to say hi to the other kids having fun, Maya gets on her turtle floaty and closes her eyes. Next thing we know, brown-skinned, Afro-puffed Maya is "riding the waves on her turtle's back!" against a backdrop of multicolored clouds and pink sky. She and her turtle dive down to the ocean floor and discover "a secret underwater world!" There, Maya transforms into a blue-tailed mermaid. When she hears a voice calling a greeting, she swims after it. The voice is not coming from the large, yellow fish, the octopus, or the sea horses she finds. Finally, she finds another young mermaid--white, pigtailed, and yellow-finned--who says it's Maya's turn to hide, and they play. Finally, Maya wakes up on the beach to a "familiar voice" introducing herself and asking if she wants to play: It's a white girl with pigtails and a yellow swimsuit. Neat, clean illustrations made using gouache, colored pencil, and digital assembly use deep colors, soft shapes, and ample space to create playful scenes that are pleasing to the eye and comfortably childlike. A cute and simple story about making friends. (Picture book. 3-8)

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May 20, 2019
At the beach, where “the air smells fresh and salty,” a shy child named Maya falls asleep. As she dreams, she rides on her green turtle floaty, diving beneath the waves, “Maya slides off her turtle and realizes she can swim just like the other ocean dwellers.” She’s become a mermaid with a blue tail that comes up snug around her chest. Pugsley illustrates in a naïf style: Maya has almost doll-like features, while underwater flora and fauna—wavy green sea plants, speckled corals, and a deep red octopus—are rendered in thick, painterly shapes. Maya’s eventual meeting with a fellow mermaid leads to her making a friend above water—a child named Pearl (“ ‘Let’s pretend we’re mermaids,’ whispers Pearl”). A dreamy beach day outing. Ages 3–7.

June 28, 2019

PreS-Gr 1-Maya simply loves the beach and eagerly awaits time to play with her parents. With bucket and shovel in hand, she asks them to play, but her parents want a moment to relax. Shy Maya is reluctant to search for new friends on her own but slowly closes her eyes and drifts into a dream-filled sleep where a brightly pattered underwater world of gouache and colored pencil images fills her vision with animals and sea plants. She has become a mermaid with a beautiful blue tail and searches the deep for the origin of sounds that call to her with the voice of a friend. What at first appears to be another mermaid turns out to be a new friend and together their imaginations swim freely. Text includes dialogue and a bit of page-to-page inference within a predicable simple narration, while underwater scenes contain the bright colors of sea animals and corals. VERDICT A seasonal selection where mermaids are in high demand.-Mary Elam, Learning Media Services, Plano ISD, TX

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