The Singing Mermaid

My grandaughter is only two, but this story is great to add to her growing collection of books. Its vibrant colours and motivational storyline held her interest. Great for Nanna to read out loud!

My 3yo daughter loves this book. We read it very often. Nice story and nice pictures.

My five and almost three year old are huge Julia Donaldson fans and we recently added this book to our collection. The Singing Mermaid marks another collaboration between Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks and Monks' illustration style is perfect for this story. The Singing Mermaid tells the story of a mermaid with a beautiful singing voice who is tricked into joining the circus by it's devious owner. She is forced to sing in the circus and kept in a fish tank but does meet some new friends along the way. Can she, with their help, make it back to her home under the sea? The book is beautifully illustrated, with Monks' trademark bright colours and added glitter which we know so well from books like What the Ladybird Heard. It's the perfect match for this under the sea story with beautiful textures and so many things for your children to look at. Each page has some glitter on it and my almost three year old loves to touch this part of each page. It's a lovely book to read aloud and has Julia Donaldson's usual lyrical style. The poetry flows beautifully and it really lends itself to being learned by heart. My children love it when I stop before the last word of each line so they can complete it themselves. The characters are great and, while Sly Sam is clearly the bad guy (and 'naughty' accordiing to my children) he's not scary at all. I can see us continuing to enjoy The Singing Mermaid for some time to come. Another fantastic Julia Donalson story.

Grandchildren loved this book

Story is great and the kids love it. But dark writing on dark backgrounds and the pages are shiny so constantly reflect light and you can’t actually read it at times! Not a well thought out layout.

Granddaughters,and their mum enjoyed this book.

This book was one of many my daughter got for her 2 year birthday. Out of about 10 other books this has to be her favourite! She always asks for this and we read it everyday at meal time. She loves that all the sea creatures come to watch the ‘singing mermaid’. She doesn’t like Sam Sly and makes an angry noise when he won’t let her go out of the fish tank and cheers when she escapes. The illustrations are magnificent. The storyline, rhyming and everything else is just magical for a child’s cognitive development. Up there with what the ladybird heard.

My daughter loves this book, great bright pictures too.