Teenage Mermaid

Rating:
Summary: a romance, a laugh, and a surpise ending
Review: Gr 6 up
This light-hearted romance pokes fun at romance itself.
Spencer is surfing in the Pacific before school, when he falls off his surfboard, which then hits him on the head. Is he drowning? He's drowning! But he doesn't even have his drivers license yet! A beautiful young swimmer saves his life, kisses him, and disappears. He wonders if she was a dream, a lifeguard, or a mermaid. He has fallen in love. He has survived with her silver locket held tightly in his fist, so he knows she was real.
Lilly is desperate to retrieve the locket, a family heirloom, before her mother finds out she took it. She is also falling in love with him, and yes, she is a mermaid.
Their problem is that one of them lives on land and the other in water. They take turns telling their side of a fast-moving, perfectly executed story. Amusing dialog (a few swear words add to the realism) and short, snappy, easy-to-read sentences lead with growing suspense to a surprise ending.
Spencer and Lilly are lightly sketched: the plot and characters are an airy scaffold for their evolving feelings. Their world as they tell it has very few adults, and school is definitely an impediment to real life.
This book is going to fly from one reader to another. Girls from grade six up will inhale it, especially if you put a romance label on the spine. Try it with boys who ask for funny books, and count it as a gift for reluctant and poor readers. Readers who enjoy this may also enjoy Fifteen Love, another recent romantic boy/girl duet, with a less airy and more serious approach.
This is a review I did for professional reasons, and as you can tell, I am a school librarian. This is a fun book for you to enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: teen mermaids RULE!!!
Review: This book ROCKS!!!!!I read it twice in one day and I even did a school report on it.I want to contact Ms.Schreiber and tell her to write a second one!ANYONE who loves mermaids as much as me and is a total romantic will TOTALLY LOVE her book!!!
-Liney Girl