From Publishers Weekly
As she has with previous interpretations of classics, Zwerger (
Alice in Wonderland) works from Bell's faithful translation of Andersen's text, with no happily ever after. Here the mermaid must watch her beloved prince marry another, knowing that she herself will die the following day. Zwerger's exquisite watercolors bring to life the mermaid's world. At a window in the castle of her father, the sea king, the mermaid gazes out into the blue-green distance, wondering what life above must be like; while fish dart in and out, she pets one absently. Watery meadows of jade and turquoise suggest empty silence and foreshadow the mermaid's sacrifice to the sea witch—in exchange for a human form, the heroine must trade her voice, "a lovelier voice than anyone on earth or in the sea." Zwerger represents the mermaid's shunning of her undersea home with a depiction of her overgrown garden, once the heroine's pride and joy. Other memorable scenes, framed in a white border, depict the mermaid towing the prince to shore after a shipwreck and, later, as dawn breaks on the day she is to turn to sea foam, the mermaid looks resolute, clothed in a glorious golden gown that resembles fish scales. Zwerger's parting scene, an aerial view of the prince's ship sailing away, amplifies the bittersweet yet redemptive conclusion, in which the little mermaid, now a "child of the air," may earn an immortal soul. The illustrations may well provide endless hours of reverie. Ages 4-8.
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From School Library Journal
Grade 3-6–Bell provides a smooth and accurate translation of Andersen's moralistic tale of a little mermaid who saves a prince from drowning, then gives up her own life to ensure his happiness. The cover illustration showing the little mermaid pulling the prince to shore sets the tone for the story to come. Soft blues and greens predominate in Zwerger's impressionist watercolors, but she has added some eye-catching spots of color to the people, buildings, and boats. There is also color in the many small illustrations of fish and other sea creatures that appear throughout, adding a bit of brightness to the narrative's heavy-handed emphasis on suffering and death, and breaking the monotony of pages packed with text. Sentences printed in colored type serve as captions for the larger paintings. This version will be appreciated by an older, more sophisticated audience than Rachel Isadora's condensed retelling (Putnam, 1998) with its warmly colored, more realistic scenes.
–Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
