Lovely, absolutely lovely. The illustrations are reminiscent of Grimm fairy tales (except not nearly as grim). They're just as well-suited for framing as they are for the book.

Minnow reminded me of so many kids I meet at the library -- so many questions to ask and such an adventurous, exploratory personality. Minnow's feeling of "What am I good for?" is one most kids experience at some point in their lives; Campbell does a good job demonstrating that everyone is good at something, even if it's not always immediately apparent.

I'll definitely be recommending this one to lovers of fairy tales and beautiful picture books.

Note: I received a digital copy of this book through NetGalley. ( )

"Stop asking useless questions," Calypso replied, "and be remarkable. Like the rest of us."

But Minnow doesn't want to be "remarkable" like her forty-nine sisters, Neptune's daughters. She doesn't care for beautiful gardens, and fish training and songs for the silvery moonlight. Minnow wants to know. She wants to know why crabs don't have fins, where bubbles go, what lies beyond her father's kingdom. Until one day, when a pretty red shoe with pretty ribbons and pretty heels comes her way. And she sets off to discover the story of the shoe.

Minnow discovers the world of the humans, with the lighthouses, the different kinds of shoes, the children. She finds the answers to her questions and makes her father proud and his court curious to know. Because we all come to know the answers. All we have to do is ask the questions.

A story of exploration and staying true to yourself, ignoring the stupid Calypsoes of the world, beautifully illustrated by K. G.Campbell.

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/ ( )

King Neptune has fifty daughters each one more glorious than the next...except Minnow. Minnow isn't great at anything except nagging her sisters with questions. One day, a mysterious item floats by Minnow and she wonders what it is. She begins asking her sisters what it is and they do not know. Minnow then asks various sea creatures and they do not know either...but she finds out some answers to her life questions. She then decides to go to the place where she found the "shoe" and discovers it is to put on the second pair of hands of half mermaid half octopus (humans). She rushes back to the kingdom and tells the court of her adventures and that is where her father deems her the most daring explorer. I LOVED this book because it teaches you to never give up. Even though you might not possess a talent someone else does, you have something special about you. I also loved the illustrations--the mermaids were so cute and they definitely enhanced the story. The overall theme, to me, is to never stop being curious, never stop questioning, never stop exploring, and never stop being you. ( )

Unlike the forty-nine other daughters of King Neptune, little Minnow had no extraordinary gifts, or special skills. She wasn't a talented singer like her sister Calypso, or a gifted gardener like Clio. What she was, was a mermaid with lots of questions. Where did the bubbles go, she wondered, and why didn't crabs have fins? When the warm surface current brought Minnow an odd red object that she could not identify, she set out to the edge of the underwater kingdom to investigate. In the process she learnt, not just what the red thing was, but what she was born to do: ask questions, explore, and share what she had learned with others...

Clearly inspired by such fairy-tales as The Little Mermaid, by Hans Christian Andersen, K.G. Campbell's The Mermaid and the Shoes is a beautifully-told and beautifully-illustrated story, one with plenty of enchantment, but also lots of heart. Family dynamics, in the form of sibling rivalry, play a role, but the main thrust of the story seems to be the age-old questions of what we are doing here, and what we are meant to do with our lives. Minnow's sense of purposelessness, her feeling that she is somehow not as worthy as her sisters, echo the insecurities that many children experience, and those young people will find a person with whom to identify, in this little mermaid. The artwork, done in pencil and watercolor, is absolutely lovely, capturing the deep and subtle colors of Minnow's underwater world, and the beauty and majesty of its inhabitants. My favorite two page spread is the one (half captured on the cover) in which Minnow swims upward with the shoe, asking the massive octopus in front of her what it may be. A beautiful book, one I would recommend to all young fairy-tale lovers, especially those searching for mermaid stories. ( )

This book takes place in an undersea palace and involves the main character Minnow, who is a young mermaid. Minnow has many older sisters, and each sister has a special talent; however, Minnow cannot seem to find a special talent of her own. The central message of this story teaches the reader that even if it doesn't seem like it, there is something special about them. When Minnow find's a human's show floating in the water, she goes on a journey to learn what it is and along the way learns many new things. She returns to tell her sisters and father about her adventures when she realizes that her special talent is being an explorer. ( )