The Mermaid and the Shoe

When a shoe drops into the sea, little mermaid Minnow (least exceptional of King Neptune's fifty daughters) investigates. What she discovers is "an odd creature...a landmaid." Minnow tells her family, and the kingdom's newfound storyteller-adventurer is born. Campbell's tale shows that a little imagination and a lot of inquisitiveness go a long way. The watercolor and pencil-crayon illustrations have a sense of motion and playfulness.

Little mermaid Minnow is one of King Neptune's fifty daughters. Each princess is exceptionally talented, except for Minnow, whose only skill -- and a dubious one at that, according to her brattiest sister, Calypso -- is asking questions. When a kicky red pump drops into the sea, Minnow is naturally curious. She makes her way to the ocean's surface to investigate what the thing could be. What she discovers on land is "an odd creature...half mermaid, but with two octopus legs... a landmaid" (i.e., little girl) who takes off her shoes (aha! That's what they are) to reveal "another set of...hands. 'But so ugly,' [Minnow] gasped. 'So knobby and gnarled. And smelly!'" Minnow swims home, excited to tell her family about her discovery. Though Calypso is unimpressed, everyone else -- King Neptune included -- is riveted by what the kingdom's newfound storyteller-adventurer has to say. Campbell's tale is nicely contained; though Minnow never actually leaves the ocean, we can see that a little imagination and a lot of inquisitiveness allow her to journey beyond her natural realm (and without having to give up either her fins or her voice; take that, Ariel!). The watercolor and pencil-crayon illustrations, though very different in style from Campbell's black-and-white pictures for DiCamillo's Flora & Ulysses (rev. 9/13), have a similar sense of motion and playfulness. And the visual differences between the flow-y haired, teeny-weeny-seashell-bikini-clad mermaids and the Raggedy Ann-esque landmaid point to the subjectivity of storytelling (and also of beauty). elissa gershowitz