What happens when you're a mermaid, spending a summer on land with your temporary legs and feet, and you have to go back under the sea early because someone fishnapped the Mermaid Queen? That's what besties Beattie, and twin sisters Zelda and Mimi have to do in this first middle grade mermaid adventure by Witch Wars author Sibéal Pounder. The mermaids arrive back under the sea to discover everyone acting... strange. A new queen who hides her face and calls herself The Swan is making everyone go back to wearing shell tops, and piranhas patrols are keeping things in check. The threesome steal a clamshell car and investigate who could be behind this fishy plot!

Mermaid stories are HUGE here. Heck, they've been huge at every library I've been at, from picture books, through YA. You've got three best friends who work really well together, a mystery to solve, and humorous villains and mean mermaids (all genders are referred to as mermaids), a café set inside an actual whale, plus black and white illustrations throughout. There are loads of in-jokes poking fun at mermaid tropes, like the clamshell tops and hair-combing, and the characters' speech is full of fishy references like the exclamation, "Oh cod!"

This is an automatic add to my shelves. Give this to your Mermaid Tales and Mermaid S.O.S. fans who are ready for higher leveled books, and your Emily Windsnap fans.

A fun, slightly goofy read about three mermaid friends who must solve a mystery and save their kingdom. Not really my cup of tea, but I will definitely be getting this for my library. I have many students asking for mermaid books, and illustrated novels are extremely popular right now. This fits the bill for both, and it's also funny, so I think it will circulate well.

This book is super cute and funny. The only problem is I did not know it was a sequel. So i felt a little lost at the beginning. Still a fun and entertaining read. I think I might pick up the first book, and this one, for my nieces!

Three young mermaids must figure out who kidnapped the queen of the mermaids. Lots of "fishy" humor. The tone, topic and cartoony spot art feel like a chapter book (rather than a middle-grade novel), though the 250-page length feels a bit long for a chapter book. Recommend to young mermaid lovers who are also strong readers.

Sorry but I couldn't get into the book at all. I tried though, I'm so sorry for my ADD brain.

Bad Mermaids Make Waves by Sibeal Pounder available May 1, 2018 from Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books

Three mermaid besties Beattie, Zelda and Mimi are spending their summer on land enjoying their human legs until they receive mysterious crabmail from their Queen, Arabella Cod. Why is their Queen cutting their summer short? Why didn’t she finish her message? What are the girls to do? It’s only after the girls begin their journey back to their hometown of Swirlyshell. Our trio of mermaids then begin a journey to save the Queen, defeat bad mermaids and scary piranhas, and compete in some shockey ball. Along the way, the girls are surrounded by multicolored hair, shell fashion galore, and a snarky seahorse named Steve. This is a fun underwater adventure that kids will be sure to enjoy.

Mystery-solving mermaids with multicolor hair! A snarky talking seahorse with a set of false teeth for a bedroom! A giant shark that is actually a floating 5-star(fish) restaurant! A sport called shockey that is kind-of sort-of like underwater Quidditch! What more do you WANT out of life??

Summary: Beattie and her friends, twins Mimi and Zelda, are loving their summer on land... until they receive crabmail with a mysterious message from Arabella Cod, the queen of the mermaid lagoon. She is cutting their on-land adventure short and asking that they return to the lagoon. But why? And why does it look like she didn't get to finish her message? As soon as they turn back into mermaids and head back to the lagoon, they realize that something very strange is going on in their city of Swirlyshell...

What I liked: Ok, hello, MERMAIDS. With colorful hair. And awesome fashions. And tail accessories. Heck YES. I want to be one of them.

And these three little mermaids know how to solve a mystery! The whole process of collecting clues, checking alibis, and piecing things together was great. I think young mystery lovers, especially those who are new to longer chapter books, would really enjoy this one. There's enough time spent on the mystery to be able to add up the clues along with them and figure it out as they do, but it's perfectly balanced with other action and exploring and general silliness so that it never gets boring.

Also, can I please live in this fabulous world that they live in?? I love that there's five different areas and they're all so unique, with different scenery and trends and places to visit, and the mermaids living there have different personalities and interests. Beattie's mom is an awesome explorer-journalist who travels to the far reaches of their world, and I kind of want to be her when I grow up.

And ohmygoodness I want to adopt Steve the talking seahorse. He's just too cute with his little glasses and bow tie in the illustrations, dancing with his favorite cartoon... And when he gets separated from Beattie and he has like a tiny seahorse panic attack and is all "don't leave me Beattie you're my reason for living!!" ... I can't. He's too precious.

What I didn't: The mystery has a bit of a twist, which I liked, but then the big whodunnit that we were following this whole time... just kind of... dies. Like, we know who did it and we get a giant info-dump of why, but then... that's it? (SPOILER: Ommy gets captured in a giant shark and Beattie says, "Take him away!" and then... WHAT?? Where are they taking him? Is there mermaid jail?) And (SPOILER: Mimi and Zelda free their parents and all the other palace mermaids and they're just kind of like, "Hey! You did it! Good job! Moving on..." Wait, what?? Did they KNOW their daughters were capable of saving the entire lagoon AND their own lives?? Were they worried at all that they might be trapped in this sunken ship forever and no one would know where to look for them?? I NEED SOME ANSWERS HERE.) But maybe that's just my grown-up brain working too hard, and the actual intended audience for this book wouldn't mind that at all. *shrug*

TL;DR: A fast-paced and fabulously silly mystery starring smart and stylish mermaid friends. And Steve the talking seahorse. I snort-laughed multiple times and I can't wait to get my hands on the next book in the series!

(And p.s., just a note if you're looking into this book on Goodreads: Goodreads seems to be a little confused right now about what book goes with this title... I think the original UK version was just Bad Mermaids and the US version is Bad Mermaids Make Waves... which may also be the title of the UK sequel? I'm not sure. Neither is Goodreads.)

Overall rating: 4 out of 5 stars