Book Type: Collection Of Short Stories Author: Ruth Manning Sanders Pages: 128 Summary(amazon.com): Stories about mermaids come from almost every country by the sea--from Iceland to India, America to Arabia. In these sixteen stories, Ruth Manning-Sanders captures the quirky personalities of mermaids and mermen, recounting their marvelous schemes and adventures with a master story-teller's eye for detail. This beloved and classic work, with stunning illustrations by Robin Jacques, has been out of print for decades. All fans of mermaid lore will celebrate this new, affordable paperback edition.
My Review: I was disappointed when I finished this book. The book was just plain boring, and lacked the mystical mermaid charm that we as mer-readers get excited about. The mermaids in each story seemed to posses very similar characteristics, such as generosity, being mischievous and of course, beautiful and charming. Because of this, the book became boring all too quickly. I do have to give the book credit on being culturally diverse though. It offers stories from a variety of countries, so if any of you readers are interested in mermaid stories like this, then I recommend this book for you. However, for my taste, I found this book a bit bland. I found another book very similar to this one, titled The Mermaid Reader, and of mermen, Nixie's, water-nymphs, sea sirens, sea-serpents, sprites and kindred creatures of the deep. Here is the cover if you are interested:
I couldn't even finish this one. It was too similar to Sanders's book. I give both books (**) 2 stars. -Sirenita The Selkie