The Mermaid Call

Want a great summer read which will keep you turning pages, wanting to know more? Then this is the book for you.
It’s a cracking tale of intrigue, suffrage and being true to yourself. The characters ebb and flow (pardon the watery pun!) and how the theme of reinventing oneself shines throughout the text. So relevant for today’s media-obsessed youngsters, while maintaining a more traditional mythological thread. Pure genius.

Highly recommend this for upper key stage two children

My favourite character is the mermaid.

Really cool and inspirational to chase you dreams with a twist

Vivien lives with her grandmother, Mimi, who runs Enchanted Tails a tourist shop that pays homage to the legend of the Mermaid of the Lake. Lake Splendour has plenty of other places that rely on the legend too. Vivien's friends Eleni, who family own the chip shop and Erik, whose Dad works in the tourist office also rely on the tourists for extra trade. The Mermaid Crown competition and Neptune trident will be held soon along with the parade. Vivien is hoping her mother will come, for the first time in three years, to see her race in the lake. But Hero, one of the school in-crowd, and her friends decide that the Mermaid Crown is sexist - it's for girls and pretty ones at that! Vivien doesn't fit the "Mermaid Crown" type. She has short, unruly, curly hair and big feet. But in the water she is a mermaid, she and Erik attend swim club but are the butt of all the jokes. Eleni decides to join Hero's anti-mermaid crown group and Erik wants to enter the Mermaid Crown competition and is making himself a costume. Vivien feels her friends have forgotten they rely on the trade. One day she has a girl in the shop, Alice de Lacey from the big house. This begins a serious problem for Vivien as she falls for Alice's friendship and falls out with her old friends. Alice's aunt Stella disappeared - she drowned in the lake looking for the mermaid but Alice is determined the mermaid exists and she wants to join her Aunt. This takes Vivien away from Mimi and her friends until Vivien realises.... This book is really superb. The characters are real, they feel like you could know and understand them and feel their pain. The legend and the mermaid crown allow us to question what we think and would make a good choice of debate at school. Will be taking this to school now so be interesting to see what the children think.