About.com Rating



This story of a normal fourteen-year-old girl who discovers her mother was a mermaid is aimed at the younger end of the teen spectrum, but it's funny and charming enough it will probably win over older teens who give it a chance. It's the first in a series of three (as I write this, book three has just come out) that follows the adventures and mishaps of a high schooler who gets thrown an extra oddity to make her feel even more like she doesn't quite fit in.

Publication Information

• Full title:Real Mermaids Don't Wear Toe Rings
• Author: Hélène Boudreau
• Series: Real Mermaids series
• Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN: 978-1-4022-4412-4

Womanly Changes

While I generally think even books intended primarily for female readers have something to offer male readers, too, I do feel I should give the boys fair warning: there is stuff about menstruation (aka the "period") in this book. Personally, I don't think anyone should avoid reading it because it mentions tampons and maxi-pads (and hey, you might learn something useful for later in life), but you'll have to decide that for yourself.

So, Real Mermaids Don't Wear Toe Rings opens with our hero, Jade, in the bath, soaking away menstrual cramps. She's just had her first period and is now agonizing over the fact that she let her best friend believe she's had it for years because she didn't want anyone to think she's a late bloomer. Jade falls asleep, and the bath salts in the water trigger something strange: Jade wakes up with a tail.

Tale Of A Tail

It's a bit of a cliché for a transformation to happen to a girl when she gets her first period, but that was really only a passing thought because Jade is such an engaging character. She's funny, and genuine, and exactly the kind of person I could imagine being friends with at that age.

She's also a little chubby, but not too hung up about it. Sure, she sometimes compares herself unfavorably to her slender, pretty best friend, but for the most part she's happy with who she is, and unapologetic about liking to eat. That's a refreshing perspective that will make this a great book to give girls with body image issues.

Complications Galore

Waking up with a mermaid tail is only the beginning, of course. Jade is surprised to discover her father isn't surprised by her transformation, and it turns out Jade's mother -- who drowned about a year ago -- was a mermaid allowed to leave the ocean for a human life. But how, Jade wonders, could a mermaid drown?

I won't give away any more of the plot, because it's a fun read best enjoyed without spoilers. But Jade does figure out the trick to getting her legs back, and she learns a lot more about her mother and what happened the previous summer on the lake.

Just A Girl

If you take away the mermaid parts of the story, what Real Mermaids Don't Wear Toe Rings is is a story of friendship. There's a rival best friend, a cute boy, and the real problem of finding the right bathing suit (when you're a teenaged girl -- or any age girl, really -- that is a legitimate dilemma). But off course, I wouldn't want to take away the mermaid parts, because they make the book even more fun.

I was really considering giving this book a higher star rating, because I think it's one worth reading (and it even has a quick-chocolate-fix recipe in the back!). In the end, I went with 3.5 stars because for my audience -- teens and adults who like teen books (and parents looking for books for their teens) -- it might feel a little young, a bit simplistic maybe. Give it a fair chance, though, and I think you'll be as charmed by mermaid Jade as I was (and you can find my reviews of the next two books in this series here and here).



Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.