(Review) Mermaids Don’t Wear Toe Rings

TITLE: Real Mermaids Don’t Wear Toe Rings
AUTHOR: Helene Boudreau
PUBLISHER: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
PUB DATE: November 2010
PAGES: 206
SOURCE: Received from the publisher.

Synopsis: (Publisher’s site)
Freak of nature takes on a whole new meaning…

If she hadn’t been so clueless, she might have seen it coming. But really, who expects to get into a relaxing bathtub after a stressful day of shopping for tankinis and come out with scales and a tail?

Most. Embarrassing. Moment. Ever.

Jade soon discovers she inherited her mermaid tendencies from her mom. But if Mom was a mermaid, how did she drown?

Jade is determined to find out. So how does a plus-size, aqua-phobic mer-girl go about doing that exactly? And how will Jade ever be able to explain her secret to her best friend, Cori, and to her crush, Luke?

This summer is about to get a lot more interesting…

MY THOUGHTS:
When I first heard about this book I really wanted to read it for three reasons:
1) This sounded like a cute and fun read for winter reading.
2) The author is Canadian and
3) Helene grew up on the East Coast (just like me)

This was a quick and easy read and I managed to read it in one sitting as I was curled up on the couch one afternoon. The day I read it was over cast and dreary out. Your typical winter day so it was nice to imagine being somewhere nice and summery.

Jade is struggling with the death of her mother still (who apparently drowned a year before), puberty, and relationships. If that wasn’t enough for Jade when she is a few months shy of turning fourteen she gets her period for the first time along with another surprise she never expected. Oh what can it be?

Its hard to be a teenager girl but not having your mother around to help you with stuff such as your first period can be rough but thankfully her dad steps up to the plate and helps her. His go to resource is google. What ever he needs to know he googles it.

I had to laugh at the scene where they are in the drugstore and they have no clue what kind of pads or tampons they should get and the fathers solution is to get one of everything.  As they are standing there the father is googling and he informs Jade all kinds of weird facts about periods.

As the book progresses Jade finds it hard to keep her secret from her best friend, Cori but her father insists bad things could come of people knowing what she is.

I loved Luke and I was surprised at the ending. I know it felt to Jade that he was more interested in Lainey but he wasn’t he prefered Jade and waited until her fourteen birthday to tell her so.

This is a great middle grade book for girl readers.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Hélène Boudreau writes fiction and non-fiction for children and young adults from her land-locked home in Ontario, Canada, though she grew up on an island surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean. She has never spotted a mermaid in the wild but believes they are just as plausible as sea horses, flying fish or electric eels. Her debut middle grade novel, Acadian Star, was nominated for the 2009–2010 Hackmatack Children’s Choice Book Award. You can visit her at: Helen Boudreau

OTHER BOOKS:
Acadian Star (Pub 2008)