Hi,

We have explored many Julia Donaldson’s books over the years and we conclude, We love her books and always will.

This year we bought tickets to the KIDFEST show, “Gruffalos, Ladybirds and Other Beasts”. The show was so creative and it was a treat to see Julia herself on stage. It was fun to watch all our favorite characters from her various books come alive.

After the show, We had one more surprise for Aruja. We bought new books from the Bookazine counter near the show and stood in line for our very own SIGNED copy from Julia Donaldson. Julia also complimented her for her pretty Indian dress. So you can imagine what a day it was for my little one.

And now about our Book.

Story:

It is a story about a Mermaid who sings beautifully. She gets lured by a man to perform in a circus. She realizes too late that she has become his captive.

Read to find out: Who helps her to go back to the Ocean? What is the ‘idea’ that helps her to escape?

Illustrations:

The book is beautifully illustrated by Lydia Monks.

This particular one is also with the shine and glitter so it makes each page a visual and sensory experience.

The various characters have been depicted well. We particularly liked the Mermaid.

Discussion topics with little ones:

Talking to strangers.

How do friends help you? How do you help your friends?

Which ocean creatures have you seen? Have you been to Ocean park, HK?

Have you visited a circus? What is an acrobat?

Have you seen a Mermaid? Do you think this is a true story or fiction?

Do you like to sing? Let’s sing a song.

Learning printables

Find the alphabet. It was a fun thing to find the alphabet on this page. Unfortunately I am not able to find out the source for this page here. Do check Google for this.

Ocean themed printables.

Many awesome blogger moms have these free printables on their blogs. If you want to try some, you can find them in one of my old posts: World of printables.

For ocean themed printables you can try the ones from ‘Living Life and Learning‘. (Thank you Monique for this amazing website. I loved it. )

Craft

Our fish tank craft can also be used for this book. If you haven’t seen it yet, check it our here: Fish Tank revisited.

There were so many beautiful mermaid crafts online. Take a look at these from PlayIdeas.com. (Thank you Play Ideas for this amazing collection of Mermaid crafts.)

I am always on the lookout for simple crafts which the kids can engage in doing themselves with minimum adult supervision.

Here is our craft activity.

Steps:

1. Cut out the Mermaid body in skin color and Tail in white color. We used partially the printable from LearnCreateLove. Just the body and the tail. (Thank you Kimberly. I love your blog and to get new ideas from there to create fun crafts for my daughter.)
2. Mix some blue and green colors and let the kids paint the Mermaid tail. Leave it to dry. You could also paint with a Q-tip or a ear bud.
3. Add some shiny lines with glitter glue (optional) and stickers.
4. Decorate the Mermaid body. Add googly eyes. Add a necklace and a bodice to the mermaid. We even added a Navel. 🙂
5. Add hair to the Mermaid head. We used a kind of wool. You could use any colored wool or threads or even fabric pieces. (Tip: I stapled the hair in place as I thought the glue might not hold it in place. Make sure to have long hair.)
6. Glue on the Mermaid body to the tail and decorate the hair with  stickers or little leaves.

I absolutely loved our Mermaids. Did you?

Do let us know if you have read this book or if you try any of these activities. We are always looking forward to hear from you.

Yes, It’s Magical. 🙂

Ciao,

Poornima