The Mermaid’s Shoes
by Sanne te Loo (Author/Illustrator)
Booktalk: On the last day of vacation, Mia finds something special on the beach–a mermaid’s shoes!
When she puts them on her feet, she knows she has found her true identity. She’s really a mermaid! She makes her own mermaid’s tail and goes on a quest to find a place to fulfill her destiny. Is it the local aquarium? Maybe the river that runs through the town? In the end, this mermaid finds the perfect place to perch.
Snippet:
Mia still wore her mermaid shoes as she fell asleep. Her dreams flowed with friends from the sea. Fantastic fish with spots and stripes swam around her. One even looked like a horse.
Six Traits Mini Lesson
Trait: Sentence Fluency After Mia finds the swim fins at the beach, she puts them on and wears them throughout the story, even when she goes to sleep!
Mia still wore her mermaid shoes as she fell asleep.
After she falls asleep, we see her dreams–in the words–and in the art on the page.
Her dreams flowed with friends from the sea. Fantastic fish with spots and stripes swam around her. One even looked like a horse.
Trait: Word Choice The details of her dreams flow in the art and in the words. Notice the use of alliteration here. The two middle sentences use words that begin with f and then words that begin with with s, both sounds that the sea makes.
Her dreams flowed with friends from the sea. Fantastic fish with spots and stripes swam around her.
These alliterative words make the sentences pleasing to read aloud. Sentence fluency and word choice work together with a poet’s touch in this translation from the original Dutch.
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