The Little Mermaid

By Hans Christian Anderson

Overview: This is a magical tale about a young girl with a tail. A young mermaid has always dreamed about swimming up to the surface of the sea and seeing what lies there, but she is not allowed to until she reaches the age of 15. She is the youngest of her sisters and loves hearing their stories about what they had seen on the surface of the sea. When she finally turns 15, she travels to the surface and sees a great ship with a celebration going on. As she looked closer, she realized that it was a young prince's 16th birthday party. She also sees how handsome and kind the prince is and falls in love with him, but she knows that she cannot be with him so she becomes very sad. After the party was finished, a great storm hit the ship and the prince fell overboard and began to drown. The young mermaid rescued him and brought him safely to shore.

After months of wishing to be with the handsome prince and have an immortal soul like he does, the mermaid decided to go see the only person who could help her, the sea witch. In exchange for a pair of legs that came with terrible daily pain, the sea witch wanted the young mermaid's beautiful voice as payment. In addition, if the prince married someone else besides the mermaid, her heart would break and she would die. She agreed and gained a pair of legs at the loss of her tongue.

After the young prince found the mermaid turned human, he quickly loved her as one loves a child, but nothing more. He told the mermaid that he would only marry the girl who rescued him and without her voice, the mermaid could not tell the prince that it was her who saved him in the storm.

One day the prince visited a neighboring kingdom and met its princess. She was gorgeous and the prince decided to marry her. And so, the little mermaid's heart broke and she died, but she gained the chance to earn an immortal soul in a place between reality and heaven.

This was an enjoyable audiobook to listen to. The narrator does a great job and the background music really sets the scene for what is going on in the story. I would recommend this audiobook to 5th-6th graders because the wording and themes can be difficult to understand.

To listen for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEpJECFkVag

-The Green Eyed Reader

Comments

Tar Beach

Tar Beach Written & Illustrated Faith Ringgold Overview: This is a beautiful quilt story about a girl who lies on her "tar beach," her rooftop, with her family. She talks about how her father is a construction worker and looks for new work for lengthy amounts of time. The little girl decides that she is going to fly over the union building, the ice cream factory and a great bridge so that they will be hers forever. I believe that she means this in a figurative manner, in a sort of dream. She takes her little brother with her at the end and they fly with their eyes closed. The paintings in this book have an unclean, but beautiful nature to them. This book provokes deep thinking and even has some historical events in it that would be great to explain to a classroom. 2nd graders would enjoy reading this book by themselves. To order your own copy: https://www.amazon.com/Tar-Beach-Faith-Ringgold/dp/0517885441/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1512013031&a

Mice Squeak, We Speak

Mice Squeak, We Speak Written by Arnold L. Shapiro & Illustrated by Tomie dePaola Overview: This short book is a rhyming poem that features many different animals and how they communicate. "Cats purr. Lions roar. Owls hoot." But then the text explains that humans, children specifically, speak, say, and talk. Many other animals are mentioned as well, such as cows, ducks, horses, chickens, and many others. This book is perfect for read alouds for PreK-1st grade. Kindergarteners could probably read this on their own with some help. The illustrations are really fun and feature each animal speaking their "language." To order your own copy: https://www.amazon.com/Mice-Squeak-Speak-Arnold-Shapiro/dp/0698118731/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1512014220&sr=1-1&keywords=mice+squeak+we+speak -The Green Eyed Reader

Too Many Tamales

Too Many Tamales Written by Gary Soto & Illustrated by Ed Martinez Overview: During one Christmas Eve, Maria was helping her mother make tamales and she put on her mother's ring because she admired it so much. Without another thought, she went back to work on needing the masa . After the tamales were finished, her cousins arrived and she began to spend time with them. All of a sudden, she realized that the ring was not on her hand anymore and it must be in the tamales! She ran down the stairs with her cousins and made them eat all 24 of them to find the ring! When it was not found, she went to tell her mother the terrible news. However, when she approached her, she saw the ring on her hand! Maria was relieved and her and her aunts and her mother set to work making a new batch of tamales. This story has an illustration on almost every page and it is an exciting one! Young readers will want to finish this story to the end so it is a great idea to read it aloud. 3rd gr

The Green Eyed Reader

Search This Blog