The Mermaid's Shoes

by Sanne te Loo

On the last day of vacation, Mia finds something special on the beach--a mermaid's shoes!
 
When she puts them on her feet, she knows she has found her true identity. She's really a mermaid! She makes her own mermaid's tail and goes on a quest to find a place to fulfill her destiny. Is it the local aquarium? Maybe the river that runs through the town? In the end, this mermaid finds the perfect place to perch.

Genres: Picture Books, Mermaids, Childrens, Fiction, Storytime

26 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Belinda Vlasbaard]

4,5 sterren - Nederlandse hardcover

Een droom van een prentenboek over de droom van een meisje. Ideaal is haar naam.

Ida vindt op de laatste dag van haar vakantie iets heel bijzonders aan het strand: de schoenen van een zeemeermin.

Wanneer Ida de flippers aantrekt, weet ze dat ze haar ware bestemming heeft gevonden: zij is eigenlijk een zeemeermin. Ook al begrijpen de kinderen uit de buurt haar niet helemaal, ze laat zich niet ontmoedigen.

Ze maakt een schitterende zeemeerminnen- staart en gaat op zoek naar een plek waar een zeemeermin zich als een vis in het water voelt. Het duurt een tijdje, maar dan vindt ze een even verrassende als sprookjesachtige, perfecte zeemeerminnenwoning.

Mooier dan ooit zijn de prenten in dit boek van Sanne te Loo, dromerig, ontroerend en raak. Ida veroverde mijn hart. Het jouwe ook?

[Dimity Powell]

Sanne te Loo's sweeping illustrations are eyefuls of joy imbuing each page with the very scent of the ocean, the chill of the late afternoon air in the park, and the thrum of the city streets.

Pearl loves her seaside holiday experience and after finding a set of abandoned fins on the beach and bringing them home, she slips into a fantasy of underwater wonderment, as a mermaid.

She is determined to find the sea in which to express and enjoy every ounce of her newfound persona but finding the sea in the city is no easy matter.

This is a charming tale that embraces imagination, tenacity, adventure and finding the perfect spot to live out dreams. The differences and similarities between city and seaside life are beautifully illustrated in prose and paint.

[Laura]

Sanne Te Loo’s Mermaid’s Shoes brings the magic and wonder of the sea to life for readers in big pages and little details. Waves and swirls of water filled with fish, stars, shells and more. I lingered on the pages searching the soft sea colors for fun and creatures. Searching for water so a mermaid can be a mermaid even in the middle of a city.

My only complaint….was the website stuff at the end of the story. I am very old fashioned when it comes to the internet mentioned in my picture books. It stole a dollop of magic here right at the end for me.

The imagination and persistence of a dreamer come to life in this story in beautiful colors and clearly printed words and magic.

A joy to read!

[Brittany]

Good story. Somewhat odd ending. I felt like it needed just a bit more explanation at the ending rather than just her climbing on top of a fountain and acting like a mermaid.

[Tara]

The illustrations are vibrant and gorgeous!

[Phylis Carpenter]

My granddaughter just loved this cute story. She is 6 months old and loves to turn the pages and look at the pictures.

She sits quietly and listens to the story.

[Ian McHugh]

A lovely little book about a young girl who, whilst visiting the beach, discovers a pair of mermaid shoes and proceeds to wear them around the city. The illustrations here reminded me of Jessica Love’s “Julián Is A Mermaid”. Florence likes the splashing in the fountains.

[Lacey]

Very cute little story about a little girl who finds some flippers and turns them into her fins thus making herself a mermaid. Great illustrations and a very cute book.

[Jennifer Strong]

On the last day of vacation Mia finds a pair of flippers on the beach. In her imagination they are mermaid's shoes! Back at home in the city, Mia misses the ocean waves. She wears her mermaid shoes to bed and to the playground. She even creates a mermaid tail out of her mom's old skirt. She goes in search of a sea fit for a mermaid. She checks the zoo, the river, and the museum but can't find the perfect watery home where a mermaid should live. Giving up, Mia heads home and that's when she finds the perfect sea- a fountain! High atop the central fish statue Mia poses in her mermaid attire for a photo which goes viral.

I love the pictures! I always pretended to be a mermaid when I went swimming as a child. Mia is sweet and keeps her enthusiasm for mermaids alive, practically becoming one! I think the ending- with her fountain picture going viral, and the last page showing dozens of other children dressed as mermaids in their own environments was pretty cute. I also like that Mia's ocean friends were illustrated in several pages as if they had physically formed from her imagination.

[Barbara]

When Mia returns from a vacation to the sea, she brings along a pair of flippers she found along the beach. She imagines herself as a mermaid those flippers as her shoes. Eventually, she fashions a mermaid's tail as well and goes off in search of a good place to swim. Eventually, she finds a spot that is just right. Originally published in the Netherlands, this story pays tribute to individuality and imaginative spirits everywhere. The illustrations show Mia's growing frustrations as she searches for a place where a mermaid might be at home in her city.

[Caitlin]

When Mia finds a mermaid's shoes on the beach at the end of summer, it's only the beginning of her adventure. After all, a mermaid's shoes aren't much use without a tail...and what else is a mermaid tail for but swimming? Readers will applaud Mia's creativity and independence, while delighting in the whimsical, detailed illustrations and the fun oversize book. A beautiful celebration of imagination and adventure for everyone in the family to enjoy!

[Kelsey]

Age: Preschool-1st grade

A sweet tale about a girl's budding imagination as she dreams of becoming a mermaid through a pair of discarded flippers. The ending has a cute twist as she inspires more children to dress up as mermaids, depicting the pictures on a webpage. There is a URL at the top of the page and I originally thought that maybe this was an actual internet phenomenon. But that URL is, in fact, the website for the publisher. Nice shameless plug there, publisher.

[Ariel Smith]

This book for me was more of a fun read because I love the thought of Mermaids. It would be a good one to teach children how to broaden their imaginations more and more. Could be used during just a story time when it isn't needed to be a teaching book. Best for grades 1-4, some complex words, but not very many.

I loved the illustrations the most, the color in the book was magnificent and it worked so well with the emotions. The illustrator really knew what he was doing.

[kim]

cute story and pictures, oversized picture book, but I don't get the ending with the website illustration and all the pictures of people in fountains - is this based on a trend? the url for the website is just for the publisher's page. huh.

[Mary]

This book is SO cute up until the end - I felt like there wasn't enough of a set-up to the "punch line," if you will. The illustrations are fabulous and the story is cute, but I felt like it lacked a certain cohesion that I wanted it to have.

[Maggie KutsBorg]

Kind of odd. and name-dropping the publisher's website at the end was really weird.

[Kadie]

Cute story with great illustrations! I love the image of her sleeping in bed with fish all around like she is under the sea.

[Edward Sullivan]

Lovely illustrations in this sweet celebration of imagination.

[Carrie Gelson]

Huh? don't understand the point of the ending. Some beautiful illustrations though.

[Deb]

This is another favorite for this week just because it reminds me of the way I played and thought as a child. I fell in love with the first page's illustration and the dream of a family vacation at the beach. I also want to buy it because my granddaughter's name is Mia. I think she will like this book when she gets older. I suggest overlooking the website ending and focusing on the fun idea of dressing up like a mermaid.

[Elizabeth]

A young girl misses the sea after she returns home from vacation and tries to find somewhere to be a mermaid in the city.

The illustrations are really well-done, really drawing you in. The book is oversize, and the text often takes up only a small part of the page, letting you really feel the scope of Mia's environment.

The ending is really lovely and not something I had expected.

However, the final two-page spread is a "website" (the URL is just the publisher) of various kids dressed up as merfolk, and I was jarred by the inclusion of an Inuit kid -- since the Inuit have their own traditional stories of mermaids, and they're real scary, so this felt like the author-illustrator was just picking some "foreign" cultures to represent in this imagined worldwide trend. Some of the other kids are dressed in traditional apparel that I suspect they only wear to dress up on special occasions and wouldn't necessarily wear for something like this, but the author-illustrator is using the costume as visual shorthand so we can "read" them correctly.