THE LITTLE MERMAID

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)