Maranda the Mermaid by K.J.Rollinson.

                      Maranda the Mermaid by K.J.Rollinson.

"Panic and horror replaced the loving look in my eyes. To love a human was not possible. He should be told he had fallen in love with a mermaid."

This delightful tale is aimed at the parents and grandparents of children between the ages of 5-10. Fantasy of the most innocent kind for those impressionable years. It is suitable for independent readers or ideal as a bedtime story. Enchanting reading.

Maranda (star of the sea) Melanie Seagrove is 11 years of age. Known as Mysterious Maranda by her two close friends, Jill, also aged 11 and her brother, Ethan, aged 12. This is because of her Houdini act and leading a dual life of part-human, part-mermaid. If she wants to locate her mother, Marella, she uses a large conch shell which acts as a loud speaker, a bit like the “mob” in Golding's Lord of the Flies.

Our heroine has to change her clothes and stuff all of her belongings into a bag which was then hidden between a cleft of rock in order to guard her secret from preying eyes. She is related to the high-and-mighty himself, King Neptune. Her uncle Adrian is Neptune's brother. Marella (shining sea) is her mother and Robert, her father. We have a wonderful group of friends, Larry the Lobster, Gerry the Grouper, Pansy the Plaice and Olly the Octopus, characters that children will adore.

The story begins with a potentially worrying situation which becomes easily resolved with the help of Maranda’s army of friends. Simply, Marella isn’t around when Maranda finishes school at lunch-time. She had gone to cut some kelp and hadn’t returned. Uncle Adrian was worried that she had had a terrible accident. She had gone into Olly’s cave when a boulder tumbled down, blocking the entrance. One of the small rocks had hit her and she was temporarily unconscious.

“Maranda found Olly the Octopus, his chest heaving, tugging at a huge boulder blocking the cave entrance. Four of his legs were wrapped around the boulder, four straddled along the edge of the cave as he heaved and pulled.”

How grateful are we for friends in a crisis! Gerry, the notorious burper, and his friends bulldozed the rocks which splintered, clearing the entrance. Marella was “stretched on the cave floor: the scales on her lower body pale, and blood oozing from a small cut on her forehead.” Olly made a cradle with his arms to carry her to safety. Tension over for the moment.

Maranda always disappeared down to the beach on her own, making sure she wasn’t followed. She had been untruthful to Ethan telling him she went there for solitude so that she could do her homework in peace. She had been partly truthful in telling him where she lived-describing the location of Robert’s house-the end house at the end of the village, near a small cove, although she had a bed in the snug cabin in the sunken galleon made of “soft blankets, woven kelp {which} covered her bed and a soft, yellow sponge {for} her pillow.” Maranda didn’t want to lie to her friends and she suffered constant pangs of guilt but she knew she must keep her identity a secret. “They wouldn’t understand about me being a mermaid.” The children will love this.

When her legs itched and ached this was a sign for her to return to the sea. She was overwhelmed by relief and happiness once she stepped into the water!

Rollinson uses sentimentality to inform us of Maranda’s heritage, hence the bedtime stories when Marella reminds her daughter of her conception and parentage. It begins dramatically with an episode which could have proved potentially life-threatening. A pleasant swim turned into a near brush with death for Robert, usually considered a strong swimmer. A rip-tide tossed and buffeted around, proving too much for the swimmer. “Soon his strength deserted him and he sank towards the bottom of the sea.”

Fortunately, Marella was swimming close by and she dragged him over stones and rocks and once the seawater had cleared from his lungs, he regained consciousness. She stayed with him all night, keeping him warm and hid her tail, being too embarrassed to reveal her true identity. Robert Seagrove did recover and called her his Saviour. It’s not surprising that he felt love towards his Guardian Angel which was reciprocated. A marriage soon followed then Maranda’s birth.

The MermaidMagazine. Nina.

Another bedtime story by Robert this time, told of a heroic rescue involving both of her parents and a cabin boy when a ship hit a terrible storm and crashed into the rocks. Another potentially dangerous situation with Marella heralded as the heroine once again.

Maranda has a wonderful 12th birthday celebration, one with her sea friends and one with her human friends. How lucky is that? Donald, King Neptune’s favourite dolphin was invited to perform his acrobatic tricks and allowed the birthday girl to ride the waves. Ethan and Jill visited Robert’s house for her other party. Whilst they waited on the beach they sauntered into a cave when Ethan found an old coin bearing the faint outline of a shield. He found out from Robert that it was a Spanish piece of eight. Ethan’s father was a diver and he knew his father would be interested in searching for more treasure which would signal danger to the fishes living in the sunken Spanish galleon including Maranda and her mother. How can Maranda resolve the situation without threatening the lives of her friends? How can she hold on to her friendship with Ethan and Jill? How does she deal with the guilt of telling lies to her friends? All will be revealed in time……

REVIEW it by Carol Naylor.

Publisher: Create Space/Quirky Girl Publishing.       ISBN: 978-1523-262595.

Copyright 2016. Permission must be obtained from the author before any of this article review is reproduced.


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