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Mermaid Days #1
The Sunken Ship
Dive under the sea with Mermaid Days, a series perfect for beginning readers!
Pick a book. Grow a Reader! This series is part of Scholastic's early reader line, Acorn, aimed at children who are learning to read. With easy-to-read text, a short-story format, plenty of humor, and full-color artwork on every page, these books will boost reading confidence and fluency. Acorn books plant a love of reading and help readers grow!
Swim along with mermaid Vera and octo-kid Beaker! In these three stories, Vera and Beaker go on adventures in their town of Tidal Grove. They explore a sunken ship, and Vera helps Beaker with an unusual octopus problem.
With text from Stonewall award-winning author Kyle Lukoff, and bright, colorful artwork from artist Kat Uno, Mermaid Days is sure to be every young reader’s favorite new series. Balancing easy-to-read-text, endless humor and charm, light nonfiction, and a loveable cast of underwater creatures, these laugh-out-loud stories are the perfect fit for new readers!
Pick a book. Grow a Reader! This series is part of Scholastic's early reader line, Acorn, aimed at children who are learning to read. With easy-to-read text, a short-story format, plenty of humor, and full-color artwork on every page, these books will boost reading confidence and fluency. Acorn books plant a love of reading and help readers grow!
Swim along with mermaid Vera and octo-kid Beaker! In these three stories, Vera and Beaker go on adventures in their town of Tidal Grove. They explore a sunken ship, and Vera helps Beaker with an unusual octopus problem.
With text from Stonewall award-winning author Kyle Lukoff, and bright, colorful artwork from artist Kat Uno, Mermaid Days is sure to be every young reader’s favorite new series. Balancing easy-to-read-text, endless humor and charm, light nonfiction, and a loveable cast of underwater creatures, these laugh-out-loud stories are the perfect fit for new readers!
64 pages, Paperback
First published May 3, 2022
About the author
Kyle Lukoff
30 books300 followersKyle Lukoff writes books for kids and other people.
Before becoming a full-time writer, Kyle worked at five bookstores, in four libraries, for three schools, as two genders, through one intersection: people, and books.
Before becoming a full-time writer, Kyle worked at five bookstores, in four libraries, for three schools, as two genders, through one intersection: people, and books.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
July 29, 2022
Three vignettes about a mermaid and her underwater friends. First Vera the mermaid shows readers around her underwater town. Then she helps her new friend Beaker trick their eight legs into working together. Then she helps rescue her friends when they get stuck in a sunken shipwreck.
Straightaway, this has one of my pet peeves of underwater settings with books and beds and stuff that wouldn't really work underwater. But then it also has a librarian, which makes me happy. But then the librarian has creepy frog legs, so...
Full color pages with almost all text via speech bubbles. It's not as pink and sparkly as you'd think for a book with Memaids in the series name. There is a weird part where the librarian pops up to give a little lecture on octopuses, but hey, I learned something new. Illustrations are cute, and characters are diverse. All are different animals on the bottom too: a cuttlefish, jellyfish, octopus, and the previously mentioned creepy frog.
Straightaway, this has one of my pet peeves of underwater settings with books and beds and stuff that wouldn't really work underwater. But then it also has a librarian, which makes me happy. But then the librarian has creepy frog legs, so...
Full color pages with almost all text via speech bubbles. It's not as pink and sparkly as you'd think for a book with Memaids in the series name. There is a weird part where the librarian pops up to give a little lecture on octopuses, but hey, I learned something new. Illustrations are cute, and characters are diverse. All are different animals on the bottom too: a cuttlefish, jellyfish, octopus, and the previously mentioned creepy frog.
April 28, 2025
It's a cute kids book. Not really any complaints about it. We learned that each tentacle of an octopus has a mind of its own!
June 18, 2022
Acorn readers are such great Early Readers with fun stories, vibrant illustrations and an almost comic book feel. I actually think you could use one of these as a nice introduction to comic panels, word/thought bubbles etc. A bunch of sea people have a series of adventures in this title. I say sea people because Vera is a mermaid, but other denizens of her town are octopus people, cuttlefish people etc. Not sure what the right terminology is there! Beaker is the octopus person and uses they/them pronouns (a subtle inclusion with no big fuss made about it). I loved the interjection that octopi arms can act independently of each other - which leads to lots of challenges for poor Beaker who's arms have a mind of their own. Light and fun with varied skin colors and sea people types depicted on the page. Word bubble colors match the character's tail/legs etc. which makes it easy to follow the dialogue.
January 5, 2024
2 stars (it was okay)
This book had three short stories. I can see many of my students enjoying the book but I didn't so much. I have a hard time suspending my disbelief so when there is an underwater library, my brain is trying to figure out how the pages don't get wet...
Vera, the main character, is a mermaid but the other characters are other half sea creature/half human hybrids. The entire second story is about a half octopus character whose legs don't get along (it was weird).
I do appreciate the diversity of the human halves in regards to different ethnicities.
This book had three short stories. I can see many of my students enjoying the book but I didn't so much. I have a hard time suspending my disbelief so when there is an underwater library, my brain is trying to figure out how the pages don't get wet...
Vera, the main character, is a mermaid but the other characters are other half sea creature/half human hybrids. The entire second story is about a half octopus character whose legs don't get along (it was weird).
I do appreciate the diversity of the human halves in regards to different ethnicities.
November 19, 2022
Vera is a mermaid who lives in Tidal Grove, and Beaker, a half-octopus just moved to the area. They play and help each other. I like the inclusion of an octopus fact throughout the story that helps set up the problem to solve in the 2nd chapter. It's a more advanced reader that's similar to a graphic novel with all the text in speech bubbles. I wish the stories connected to each other a little more. Always good to have another mermaid book!
February 11, 2023
A cute little book that's a great transitional read from picture books to chapter books. I love all the different merpeople, and how we get an octopus fact that sets up one of the story's problems. It's also really nice to have a mermaid book with a variety of genders and representation.
March 3, 2023
Working on expanding my repertoire of mermaid-related fiction.
This was a cute couple of short stories, though stylistically some of the characters were weird to me. I just didn't vibe with how human torsos were graphed onto some of the different sea life, it just didn't look quite right.
This was a cute couple of short stories, though stylistically some of the characters were weird to me. I just didn't vibe with how human torsos were graphed onto some of the different sea life, it just didn't look quite right.
Want to Read
October 22, 2021Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.
October 21, 2022
3.5 stars. I liked the second one better!
November 20, 2022
A solid easy reader in a graphic novel format, featuring half-human sea creatures of many different kinds.
Bonus: a frog-librarian cameo.
Bonus: a frog-librarian cameo.
September 30, 2024
Graphic novel style early reader with dialogue bubbles throughout.
March 24, 2026
I like how these can be used as play scripts for puppet shows as well.
June 15, 2023
An early reader chapter book series perfect for fans of The Little Mermaid and other underwater creatures.
July 22, 2023
Mermaid and other sea creature lovers will love it. They are so cute!
October 12, 2023
Read to my baby that loves mermaid. It was a cute story.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews