To Catch a Mermaid - Softcover

Suzanne Selfors is the author of the Imaginary Veterinary series, the Smells Like Dog series, "Fortune's Magic Farm," "To Catch a Mermaid," and many other books. Rumor has it that she is a direct Viking descendant who enjoys marmalade toast and fried fish fillets. When not writing, she cares for wild critters, including a flock of messy chickens and two children. She lives on an island in Washington State where she likes to jog in the rain. She has been known to play a mean game of Kick the Ball Against the Wall.

When the unlikely hero of Selfors's assured debut, a luckless sixth grader named Boomerang Boom Broom, inadvertently brings home a baby mermaid instead of cheap seafood from the fish market for dinner, he sets off a madcap chain of events that turns his house bright pink, transforms his bathroom into a tropical beach replete with banana tree and monkey, puts his little sister Mertyle's life in grave danger, and miraculously heals his dysfunctional family from the sudden and bizarre loss of his mother. The baby mermaid, the ill-tempered antithesis of Disney's Princess Ariel with razor-sharp teeth and green-seaweed hair, possesses powerful magic that, at first, makes Mertyle's unwitting wishes come true; but the merbaby also brings with it a deadly curse that soon afflicts Boom's sister in the form of a bizarre white fungus. With time running out, can Boom find a cure for his fuzz-covered sibling? Featuring some outlandishly funny characters (among them the villainous, big-butted principal Mrs. Prunewallop and Halvor, the family cook who models himself on Erik the Red), Selfors's adventure also subtly explores serious themes like grief, adversity and misfortune. In a nutshell—or, more fittingly, a conch shell—her nimble fantasy is about Boom's journey of self-discovery and the feeling that comes from achieving a seemingly unreachable goal. A few unresolved plot threads, notably to do with the mother, point to a sequel. Ages 8-12. (Sept.)
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