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Mermaids Are Real!
Discover what makes mermaids so magical and become a true believer with this sparkly
Mythical Creatures Are Real
board book!
Gemstone and sparkles and coral, oh my! That's what mermaids are made of! But did you also know that mermaids are vegetarian, or that they can control the weather on the seas? Mermaid lovers will be tickled to learn all sorts of facts about these beloved beings in #1 New York Times bestselling illustrator Holly Hatam's latest Mythical Creatures Are Real board book.
Encourage your little one's imagination with peeks into other whimsical worlds! Look for Holly's Unicorns Are Real, Dragons Are Real, and Fairies Are Real, too!
Gemstone and sparkles and coral, oh my! That's what mermaids are made of! But did you also know that mermaids are vegetarian, or that they can control the weather on the seas? Mermaid lovers will be tickled to learn all sorts of facts about these beloved beings in #1 New York Times bestselling illustrator Holly Hatam's latest Mythical Creatures Are Real board book.
Encourage your little one's imagination with peeks into other whimsical worlds! Look for Holly's Unicorns Are Real, Dragons Are Real, and Fairies Are Real, too!
26 pages, Board Book
Published March 31, 2020
About the author
Holly Hatam
49 books44 followersHolly Hatam is a picture book maker, greeting card designer, and a textile engineer. She is also the #1 New York Times Bestselling illustrator of Dear Girl. Her other books include, Made by Maxine, Tree Song, Jack (Not Jackie) and The Acadia Files. Holly lives in Whitby, Ontario where she can be found hugging trees with her husband Stephen and son Linden, stuffing her pantry full of tea and sticking her nose in a book.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
April 20, 2021
My rating is 3/5.
Baby's rating is probably a 5/5.
She is going into a mermaid phase and we found this book and had to have it at home. She likes the texture embossing on the front cover with the glitter and scales. I think there could be a bit more content inside the book as far as what the mermaids like/do/are into than the 1 line on each page. The illustrations are okay, could use more detail or filler background content. Baby enjoys pointing out the jellyfish, starfish, etc, so more of that would have been appreciated.
It's a cute book, one of her current favs, but I'm not sure we would pick up the rest in the series.
Baby's rating is probably a 5/5.
She is going into a mermaid phase and we found this book and had to have it at home. She likes the texture embossing on the front cover with the glitter and scales. I think there could be a bit more content inside the book as far as what the mermaids like/do/are into than the 1 line on each page. The illustrations are okay, could use more detail or filler background content. Baby enjoys pointing out the jellyfish, starfish, etc, so more of that would have been appreciated.
It's a cute book, one of her current favs, but I'm not sure we would pick up the rest in the series.
June 29, 2021
My number one reaction to this book was: Glittery.
The art is very glittery.
My second reaction was: huh? What is this book about? I don't know!
I had high hopes with the first page. I thought it was cute and was setting up an interesting little outline of what the story was going to be. Mermaids are made of Seaweed, song, pearls, daydreams, treasure, bubbles, coral and sea glass. I was looking forward to that developing further.
Alas, it was ignored after the first page. Instead we got little sentences describing the life of mermaids that are not really connected to each other and form no overarching narrative. I don't really get the point of this book. I also don't understand the title's connection to the contents. You would think that with a title like "Mermaids are real!" There would be some imaginative defense of that position instead of hackneyed repetitions of mermaid life gathered from Disney movies. And seaweed is a mermaid's hair but also their sole diet? Do they go around eating each other's hair or something? How is that cute?
Nope.
Art: Glittery
Story: Wasted Potential
Price: 7.99
I'm standing by my initial impression: children's picture books are by and large terrible. I'm at 26 so far and have only found 7 to be good, so that's about a third. We shall see if the proportion increases or decreases as I get further through my library's collection.
The art is very glittery.
My second reaction was: huh? What is this book about? I don't know!
I had high hopes with the first page. I thought it was cute and was setting up an interesting little outline of what the story was going to be. Mermaids are made of Seaweed, song, pearls, daydreams, treasure, bubbles, coral and sea glass. I was looking forward to that developing further.
Alas, it was ignored after the first page. Instead we got little sentences describing the life of mermaids that are not really connected to each other and form no overarching narrative. I don't really get the point of this book. I also don't understand the title's connection to the contents. You would think that with a title like "Mermaids are real!" There would be some imaginative defense of that position instead of hackneyed repetitions of mermaid life gathered from Disney movies. And seaweed is a mermaid's hair but also their sole diet? Do they go around eating each other's hair or something? How is that cute?
Nope.
Art: Glittery
Story: Wasted Potential
Price: 7.99
I'm standing by my initial impression: children's picture books are by and large terrible. I'm at 26 so far and have only found 7 to be good, so that's about a third. We shall see if the proportion increases or decreases as I get further through my library's collection.
March 16, 2022
Gives the reader "facts" about mermaids. Not sure why it bugs me, but most of these facts are not part of the mermaid "lore" that I know, they just seem to be randomly made up by the author. Which would be fine if they were presented in story format, but this is just - here's the facts: Mermaids are veggie eaters. They always start water fights. They are made of coral, sea glass, and daydreams. I appreciate the diverse skin colors and hair styles of the mermaids, but wish there were some merboys as well.
UPDATE: I just read the official publisher's description of the book, which says "Did you know [...] they can control the weather on the seas?" THAT WASN'T EVEN IN THE BOOK!
UPDATE 2: Another commenter just pointed out that on the first page, the mermaid's hair is definitively seaweed. On page nine, it says that their favorite food is seaweed. WHAT?
UPDATE: I just read the official publisher's description of the book, which says "Did you know [...] they can control the weather on the seas?" THAT WASN'T EVEN IN THE BOOK!
UPDATE 2: Another commenter just pointed out that on the first page, the mermaid's hair is definitively seaweed. On page nine, it says that their favorite food is seaweed. WHAT?
May 17, 2022
I didn't -love- it, I would rate it closer to a 3.5 instead of a 4. The cover is adorable because each mermaid's hair has shiny foil you can touch. I was disappointed that there was nothing else inside. HOWEVER, I did find it cute that it represented multiple colors and hairstyles of mermaids, their cute families, and the funny nod to entice kids to eat their veggies (or seaweed if they happen to be a mermaid)
August 16, 2021
The first page was very cute with a description of what mermaids are made of. It caught my attention and since this is a brief board book I didn’t flip through much more before reading. Reading was a disappointment though. There’s no actual story but just a bunch of unconnected descriptions of a random part of the life of a mermaid. No actual story or thing to convince us of the title.
December 5, 2022
"Mermaids sometimes pretend to be human."
Not mentioned: ".... To drag hapless sailors to their doom."
They show a Merman on one page, but never mention him again or explain whether he too is a "maid."
Not mentioned: ".... To drag hapless sailors to their doom."
They show a Merman on one page, but never mention him again or explain whether he too is a "maid."
May 5, 2020
This series is so sweet. I loved this one.
June 6, 2020
Yes to diverse mermaids!!
August 21, 2020
Super cute. Wish it was a picture book.
November 15, 2021
A preschool and up board book anout mermaids and their life in the ocean.
January 12, 2022
Glittery, bubble-light board book celebrating mermaids and their hobbies.
September 1, 2023
One of our favorite series of books for our 2 year old!
July 14, 2024
I'm not sure why the page-by-page statements do not link back to the 8 qualities of mermaids listed on the first page. Art is cheerful; there could be boy mermen, too.
Read
July 26, 2024First library book!
October 2, 2020
Lots of cool mermaids going around doing mermaid things.
I loved all the colors and that the cover was covered in glitter and that no two mermaids looked alike.
Intrigued by the opening page about what mermaids are made of. Neat take on it.
I loved all the colors and that the cover was covered in glitter and that no two mermaids looked alike.
Intrigued by the opening page about what mermaids are made of. Neat take on it.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews