David Wiesner

Hm....hmmm. "I control the fish girl" Neptune the fisherman proclaims to an unsuspecting crowd of visitors, visitors of his magnificent aquarium of untold treasures. The most valuable one is an adolescent mermaid who can't talk. An adolescent mermaid who was raised by a man that calls her his treasure. No she doesn't get a name. She gets to be his pet, his main attraction. This book is disturbingly normal. It reminds me of a fable or fairy tale meant to be a cautionary tale, but ironically most people find it more entertaining than scary. You have a grown-ass man build a whole aquarium to house a kidnapped mermaid. He tells her stories about her people as payment for going along with his rouse. She plays hide and seek with the guest,making sure they don't see her. They drop coins into the tank and she collects them. Everybody wins! But there is trouble in the horizon when he finds out about her only human friend, Livia. Who tries to tell her mom, but is promptly ignored. Mira, the name Lucia assigns to her knew friend is tired of being imprisoned and ventures out and discovers she wants to be apart of the human… (mer)