I read this with my 2 and 3 year old boys. We have previously enjoyed the Grufallo so were interested to see what this new Julia Donaldson book would be like. I wondered whether it would be more for girls due to the mermaid theme and glitter but they enjoyed it, so I don't think its a book that need to be restricted to only one gender.

Like the Grufallo the whole of this text is written in rhyme, which flows very easily when you read it aloud to your children. It has 4 lines on each page and 32 pages. I found it just the right length for this age group.

The illustrations are great - very bright and colourful and with the added feature of glitter being integrated into all of the pictures, which is a really nice effect and brightens up the pages even more.
This is the hardback version and the book is quite a large size.

The story is, as you could guess, about a singing mermaid. She gets fooled by a sly circus master and persuaded to leave her home by the seaside to go and perform in the circus but is not treated properly and is kept in a small fish tank instead of in the luxury that she was promised. My 3 year old was a bit upset by this! But the mermaid does escape at the end, using the unusual method of walking on her hands all the way back home, so all is well in the end.

Overall this is a good book for preschool age children, very nicely presented with the illustration and glitter and an interesting rhyming story to keep their attention.

I have also reviewed this on Amazon under the name M. Marikar