This was a cute book! The illustrations were entertaining, and it ended up having a great message to always clean up after yourself. I wasn’t a fan of the grammar in the story though. It seemed many words were missing the suffixes they needed.

The art in this book is absolutely stunning! It's lushly detailed, saturated, and just jumps off the page! I went back through the book after reading just to admire the pictures again.

I love the message of the story--a young girl feels deeply connected to the ocean and voraciously explores all of its habitats, residents, and mysteries. She's distressed by plastic pollution and finds a way to help, at least in her little corner.

The language is also beautiful. Some sort of vernacular is used (I'm not enough of a linguist to know for sure if it's AAVE or not) but it's easily understandable and fits right in to the meter of the rhymes. The word choices are expressive and evocative. They really dress up the story and I'm excited for my students to hear a varied and sophisticated vocabulary. This would be an excellent circle time read!

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review!

Mermaid Kenzie is a book about a little girl who learns the importance of the simple task of cleaning up through ocean exploration with her mother. There were some very beautiful illustrations but the book fell a bit short for me with how it was written (the grammar kills me, which I know it was intentionally written that way) and it took me a while to understand what was going on and the message, so I’m sure it would take a young reader an even longer time to understand the theme. I so wanted to love this book since we are big mermaid story lovers here and the concept has such great potential!

A big thank you to NetGalley and Astra Publishing House for the ARC. I am voluntarily reviewing this book. This is a children's book. The graphics in this book are beautiful. I almost wish there were no words, as the language that is used-I was uncomfortable reading it. I believe that this is written for a very specific audience. Again, the graphics and the what the book is trying to get across are fantastic concepts. I just had issues with the vernacular language. I am probably in the minority but that's okay. 3 stars

Very cute children's book. It starts in conversation like a typical picture book and then switches to verse when "the little mermaid" finally gets to go to the beach. Lovely illustrations and cute message about being who you are and cleaning up the beach!

Thank you to netgalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was given an ARC of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Things I loved-
The artwork. It's rich and just realistic enough and simply gorgeous.
The message. I grew up in the 80's and 90's when the movement to save our animals from plastic soda rings really gained momentum.
That Kenzie is a mermaid. There is no better way to get the attention of little girls across the globe than to throw in a mermaid.
That Kenzie acts on her feelings and does what she can to make a difference.

Things I struggled with-
The vernacular that's used is appropriate and seems to actually fit with the story, but to my midwestern mouth and ears it's a stumbling block.

Mermaid Kenzie had beautiful artwork, but the book was a bit confusing and didn't hold my 3.5yr old's attention very well. As an adult, I couldn't tell if it was written in verse, conversation or as a storybook. Perhaps it just didn't flow well on my Oasis, making it more difficult to follow. The overall story is nice, bringing awareness to littering and the toll that it's taking on the oceans.

I loved the rhyming in this book and the flow of the story. The illustrations were beautiful. I did really like the fact that along with being a mermaid it stresses the fact that we need to clean up our beaches and keep it beautiful. This book was very well done and McKenzie is beautiful!