The Little Mermaid

by Katie Daynes (Retold By), Alan Marks (Illustrator), Hans Christian Andersen

Picture book - An enchanting re-working of this classic tale by Hans Christian Andersen, which tells the story of the beautiful mermaid who sacrifices her life at sea and her beautiful voice so that she can be with the handsome prince she loves.

Genres: Childrens, Picture Books, Fairy Tales, Fiction

24 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2005

About the author

Katie has been writing non-fiction children's books for almost half her life and loves questioning the world from a child's point of view. She's developed some of Usborne's bestselling series, including the See Inside books and the Lift-the-Flap Questions & Answers series.

Reviews

[Saffron Moon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This rating is for the edition adapted by Katie Daynes and illustrated by Alan Marks.

[Marquise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating is mostly for the watercolour illustrations, because the adaptation of Andersen's tale isn't very good.

[CalamityMane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Closer to the original, with no Disneyfied ending, this retelling still lacks depth.

The watercolour illustrations are gorgeous, despite all of the mermaids looking too similar (facially).

Wouldn't make the reading list.

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a very depressing book. The ending is what makes this book really sad. It shocked me and just made me sad and disappointed. The illustrations are also not my style so I wasn't a big fan of them.

SPOILERS AHEAD:

Most The Little Mermaid stories end with a happy ending. This one did not. Instead of the mermaid marrying the Prince, he marries a human and the mermaid loses her voice forever and goes back to the ocean as a mermaid living in silence. Tragic. Awful ending.

[Micaela Swart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Art is stunning, story is meh.

[Gabby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not like the movie version we know but still well told. I liked the cliff hanger it left the reader on and would love to know what the children’s predictions would be about what happened to her next.

[Jaimie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I totally thought that this was going to be a reworked version of Andersen's story, but besides leaving out the themes about the Little Mermaid wanting a soul (not a game changer from my perspective, since I'm not a fan of this kind of Christian morality) the story stayed relatively true with the Little Mermaid failing in her quest for the Prince's love and becoming seafoam. What actually gives this book a higher rating than average is that the illustrations are so beautifully done. Marks does a fantastic job of using watercolours to interpret the mer-people's underwater landscapes - giving it both the murkiness and indistinct visuals of a world without direct sunlight but still retaining enough of the bright colours and saturation of vibrant blues and greens to keep the images from becoming too dark.

[Amber · Rating 1 out of 5]

The ending of this edition of The Little Mermaid is truly tragic instead of the happy ending we're used to. It was a shocker, both for me and the kids. I'd rather not read my children bedtime stories that end in tragedy. Instead of winning the prince, the little mermaid thinks, I have failed, and is then swallowed up by the ocean (in human form. Also, the cover art is very pretty but it ends up being pretty monotonous throughout the book.

[Whole And · Rating 3 out of 5]

The original tale of the little mermaid is not the lovely ending of Disney's version. It is an unfortunate tale but one that can be used to empower our girls ensuring they are not giving themselves away and cultivating the ability to voice themselves.

[The British International School Madinaty BISM]

Natalie Tame, class 2E
I love the story so much it's so good and nice and

[Hm · Rating 4 out of 5]

God and sooo saaad💔

[chiyu · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is awfully beautiful.