Orchard books ISBN 9781408333877 £12.99
Frankie, who loves fairytales, befriends a mermaid at the beach, but both are warned by a wizard that a huge sea monster is around. Fairytale characters, it seems believe what they hear, so the mermaid and wizard are joined by an equally frightened handsome price and a bearded pirate. Only Frankie remains ‘big and brave’, encouraging the
others to be the same. And then the monster arrives! At first sight it certainly appears to be huge and scary, filling a double-page spread with its enormous eyes and black, scaly body. But turn over and we see it is nothing of the sort,
just a rather cute little thing who quickly becomes everyone’s friend. So maybe we are learning here not always to heed the scaremongers; be big and brave and learn to challenge things together – they may turn out to be not as bad as was imagined. Age-range 3 – 6.
Pam Dowson, retired primary teacher and PGCE tutor
