In Izquierdo's adaption of "The Little Mermaid" the storyline is similar to Disney's however takes a twist at the end. The littlest mermaid of 6 sisters must wait until her fifteenth birthday to swim to the surface and see the world above. When she does, she witnesses a prince celebrating his birthday and the boat capsizes and she saves him. She is enamored with the prince and goes to the sea witch to trade her tail and voice for human legs. The prince ends up never falling in love with her, he marries another princess, and the littlest mermaid seemingly dies and goes into the Realm of the Air. It could be that I am most familiar with the happy ending and lighter version of Ariel and Ursula, but I found this book sad and not necessarily the most upbeat children's book. I did like that on each page, the text was printed in English and in Spanish, but I wish it would have woven in Spanish words or phrases throughout instead of having them as completely separate entities. ( )

Es un libro para niños que es de una sirenita que vivía
muy triste, pensando como fuera su vida su tuviera pies ( )

This is not the charming Disney story. On the Little Mermaid's fifteenth birthday, she is able to go to the rock and see the human world. A prince is also celebrating his birthday on a ship until it wrecks. The Little Mermaid, not being able to take her eyes off of him, saves him and hides. She then goes to the rock every day to see if the prince has returned. When he doesn't, the mermaid resorts to seeing the sea witch who tells her that she has a potion to give her human legs but there are a few catches: every step will hurt like knives, she has to give up her voice, if the prince doesn't reciprocate her love, her heart will break and she will turn into foam and wash up on sea. To her surprise, the prince is meeting a princess who he is to marry, but he tells the little mermaid no one can make him marry her. Upon meeting the princess, the prince thinks she is the one who saved him and marries her. The little mermaid's sisters hand her a knife and tell her to stab his heart. She tries to do this and simply cannot, so she throws herself overboard and washes up as foam. I loved the illustrations in this book. They were so simple, yet elegant. The overall theme, to me, is love is a sacrifice. I also loved that it was bilingual--so many times we just expect ESL kids to know words, but it's not that easy. ( )

The book is about a little mermaid who can't wait for her fifteenth birthday so she can sit above water and observe the world. This book is a retelling of the little mermaid that also has a Spanish version inside. One of the parts that stood out was when the sea witch gave her the potion to turn her tail into legs. The price she had to pay was If the prince ends up marrying someone else the little mermaid's heart will break and she will turn to foam. In the end she doesn't succeed and her sisters try to convince her to kill the prince before she loses her tail. That part part of the book didn't make much sense. If she followed through with killing him, does that guarantee she'll be able to talk again, her heart won't break and she wont turn into foam? It just talked about getting her tail back, nothing else. The ending is very questionable as well. After changing her mind about stabbing the prince in the heart, she jumped into the water, turned to foam then these ghost looking mermaids too her to the Realm of Air. The story ended very abroptly. ( )

This adaptation of The Little Mermaid holds true to the more classic adaptation that we are all used to hearing from the "original" retellers of this oral tale. However, what I enjoy most about this book is the Spanish text that follows with it. One reason why I love the older adaptations of La Sirenita is because of endings that differ from what the general public is used to, example: Disney. Also, The Little Mermaid goes through something that many, MANY, other fairy tale protagonists don't go through - character development. I always thought that was different and amazing. ( )