Milly and the Mermaids by Maudie Smith Review

Reviewed by Emma Wasson

The book is in paperback but has a fairly thick front and back cover, which doesn’t easily bend and each page of the book itself is made from good quality shiny paper and is easy for younger children to turn.

The illustrations throughout the book are lovely and really aid in telling the story. The majority of each page is filled top to bottom with artwork as there are only a couple of paragraphs at most on each page. The drawings are fun and paint each scene perfectly for the younger reader. At different points during the book they have used extra silvery sparkle, for example to add additional details to the mermaids tails, which is a lovely touch and always a winner for little girls. The drawings also allow the reader to use their own imagination and my daughter particularly liked the fact that whilst Milly was talking about spotting the mermaids, they are actually illustrated in several pages hiding from Milly and her family.

The story is a tale of a little girl called Milly who goes on a day trip to the seaside and would love to see a mermaid, but unfortunately doesn’t spot one. Her dad gives her a special shell to take home, which turns out to be a magical shell that comes to life that night and transports her under the water and allows her to play with the mermaids in the sea, and makes her dreams come true.

The book itself is a fairly short book, and easy to read to children as a bedtime story. As mentioned above each page is beautifully illustrated with each page only having 1 to 2 paragraphs per page, so young readers are able to read the book easily themselves. It uses repetition throughout the story to engage the reader and emphasise the point that little girls’ dreams can come true, and do so in the end as Milly ends up playing with the mermaids.

The only point I would make is that when Milly has a tantrum she says “I don’t want a stupid seashell!”, I don’t think that the author needs to use the word stupid, as I think this has very negative connotations and for the younger readers, for whom this book is aimed at, it is not necessary to use this strong negative language.

Overall I would say that this is a good quality book with an enjoyable tale for children, which has been very well illustrated.

I would say the book is on a par for value for money with other books available in the UK of this quality.

Rating: 4/5

RRP: £6.99 (paperback), £12.99 (hardback) / £3.99 (Kindle)

Available to buy from Amazon here.