Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Bayport Public Library | EASY COL | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Hardwood Creek Library (Forest Lake) | EASY COL | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | EASY COL | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | EASY COL | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Stillwater Public Library | EASY COL | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
In this adaptation of the traditional nursery rhyme, a mermaid swims through the ocean swallowing various marine animals, starting with a shark, while two children ask questions and comment on the different creatures.
Author Notes
Lucille Colandro is the author of the There Was an Old Lady books. She wrote her first Old Lady book, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat, when an editor asked for a Halloween book with a lady who didn¿t die at the end. Lucille¿s old lady swallows everything from leaves to pants to snow always with a funny surprise at the end! In 2016 her title There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Turkey! made The New York Times Best Seller List.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-This underwater romp is at once funnier and more educational than "There was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly." The mermaid's marine diet is skillfully inserted into the old rhyme ("There was an old mermaid who swallowed a squid./That's what she did!/She swallowed a squid./She swallowed the squid to romp with the shark.") and her antics are observed by a boy and girl in a boat who add commentary on the target animals' habits and features. Closing nonfiction additions complement the silliness with a paragraph each of facts about the creatures featured in the story- sharks, squid, tropical fish, eels, crabs, sea stars, and clams-and a search-and-find game. Lee crams delightful cartoon details onto the undersea spreads. His zany style is reminiscent of Quentin Blake's work; its inclusion here tips a solid text into "read it again" territory. VERDICT The rare book that's perfect for at-home reads and rereads as well as for storytime.-Henrietta Verma, National Information Standards Organization, Baltimore © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
Colandro combines cumulative-rhyme silliness with slight undersea-creature facts in an entertaining if sometimes confusing easy reader; an appended spread provides more scientific detail ("Sharks can go through up to 30,000 teeth in their lifetime!" "Sea stars do not have a brain or blood"). Busily textured illustrations show a bespectacled, pink-skinned mermaid-of-a-certain-age eagerly swallowing the various creatures. (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Having eaten pretty much everything on land in 13 previous versions of the classic song, Colandro's capaciously stomached oldster goes to sea.Once again the original cumulative rhyme's naturalistic aspects are dispensed with, so that not only doesn't the old lady die, but neither do any of the creatures she consumes. Instead, the titular shark "left no mark," a squid follows down the hatch to "float with the shark," a fish to "dance with the squid," an eel to "brighten the fish" (with "fluorescent light!" as a subsequent line explains), and so onuntil at the end it's revealed to be all pretending anyway on a visit to an aquarium. Likewise, though Lee outfits the bespectacled binge-eater with a finny tail and the requisite bra for most of the extended episode, she regains human feet and garb at the end. In the illustrations, the old lady and one of the two children who accompany her are pink-skinned; the other has frizzy hair and an amber complexion. A set of nature notes on the featured victims and a nautical seek-and-find that will send viewers back to the earlier pictures modestly enhance this latest iteration.Series fans won't be disappointed, but young readers and listeners who know only the original ditty may find this a touch bland. (Early reader. 6-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
