REVIEW: Julian is a Mermaid by Jessica Love
This young person’s book, reading age 4+ is a terrific delight, understated, magical and profound it put a smile on my face.
Julian is a Mermaid
Jessica Love
This young person’s book, reading age 4+ is a terrific delight, understated, magical and profound it put a smile on my face. The story is simple, Julian is out with his Nana when he spots three women in lavish mermaid costumes and he heads off on a journey of the imagination beneath the waves to swim with a host of colourful fish. He returns home and starts dressing up, Nana catches him and Julian experiences fear and worry, but then she returns with the best gift ever.
The book explores ideas of identity, acceptance, fear, peer pressure, family expectations and a breath-taking desire for glamour and change. It also tells of the power of the people around children to shame or celebrate self-expression.
There’s few words in this book, but the ideas are broad, marvellous and magical. Jessica Love’s debut book is a triumph and the energetic drawings, which swish and explode from the pages, support the narrative in precisely the right, utterly fabulous, seriously expressive way.
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