Product Description

The little mermaid grows up longing to visit the world above the waves. When she is finally old enough to travel to the surface of the sea, her life is changed forever. She rescues a young prince from a shipwreck and, out of love, risks all she has for the chance to win his heart. Rachel Isadora's glowing watercolors and rhythmic text breathe new life into this classic story from Hans Christian Andersen.

"A fey, powerfully moving tale, exquisitely illustrated."--Publishers Weekly

Awards:
( A Child Study Children's Book Committee Best
( Children's Book of the Year

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1888444 in Books
• Published on: 2002-01-11
• Released on: 2002-01-11
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 32 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Isadora's (Isadora Dances) haunting retelling of this classic tale leaves Disney's cotton-candy version far behind. Hewing faithfully to the darker themes of Andersen's original, Isadora relates the bittersweet story of the little mermaid who falls in love with a human prince and finds her love unrequited. Doomed by the sea witch's nefarious contract to become sea foam, the mermaid rejects the villainess's offer to save herself by murdering the prince, and instead martyrs herself for love. It's a fey, powerfully moving tale, exquisitely illustrated. While the text spools out against squares of sea-washed greens and grays, Isadora's ethereal watercolor portraits register a wide range of emotions, from the sweet innocence of the mermaid's yearning captured in a face tilted toward the water's surface, to the eerie image of her five sisters floating on a moonlit sea, offering up a knife to slay the prince. Isadora displays a dramatist's sense of lighting, endowing many scenes with the visual presence of a stage play. The sea-witch, for instance, is doubly frightening by virtue of her face being illuminated as if by footlights, casting cruel shadows and highlights across her leering visage. Isadora's superb artistic efforts outshine the somewhat pedestrian retelling, however, which lacks the emotional resonance of the illustrations. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 2?Isadora's light-filled watercolor paintings offset a less than engaging text in her retelling of Andersen's classic tale. The story of the mermaid who sacrifices her voice and suffers for her love of a human prince, while accessible to younger listeners and competent enough, lacks richness and depth. The paintings, however, express the true range of the tale, from the appealing, engaging child mermaid looking up with wonder and longing on the cover to the triumphant spirit soaring joyfully through the clouds at story's end. Isadora demonstrates her mastery of light and dark; the stormy painting of the tempest that sinks the prince's ship is followed by the sunny calm of the shore. The illustrations alone make the book a worthwhile purchase, and if the text is not as fleshed out as one might wish, it is at least a version of the story that will appeal to preschoolers.?Donna L. Scanlon, Lancaster County Library, PA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
From Isadora (A South African Night, p. 496, etc.), a rich retelling of a dark and complex tale, with illustrations that are surprisingly uneven. The little mermaid turns 15: ``She rose to the surface as light as a bubble. In the glow of sunset, a great ship lay anchored.'' She peers inside the porthole to view the young prince with whom she'll fall in love. The telling has a spellbinding cadence, lending itself to reading aloud. Scenes such as the storm destroying the ship, the sea witch, and the first portrait of the mermaid as a young girl are grand and accomplished; others aren't as strong. In almost every scene the little mermaid's hair and face varies to an amateurish degree; a scene of her and her grandmother demonstrates markedly different approaches to drawing faces: The little mermaid's is all but featureless, the elderly woman's is explicitly detailed. The text stands alone, but given Isadora's past accomplishments, it needn't be so. (Picture book/folklore. 6-9) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.