The Little Mermaid by H C Andersen, Giada Francia and Francesca Rossi.

When she falls in love with the prince she rescues during a storm, the Little Mermaid sells her voice to a witch for the chance to become human. But if her prince doesn’t love her back, she could lose it all . . .

The Little Mermaid by H C Andersen, Giada Francia and Francesca Rossi.

I 100% blame Disney that it’s almost impossible to find a proper version of The Little Mermaid anymore! This is a tragic story about unrequited love and sacrifice, not a Happy-Ever-After!

I do enjoy this series of fairy tale retellings for the most part, and know that each time I pick one up I’m going to get some solid writing and storytelling—a longer story than your average picture book.

There’s a consistency across the series, both in writing style and art style, which would make these a great box set for a young reader. This one, though, I’m on the fence about. It’s the Disney version and little about it resembles the proper story (odd, because Rapunzel was done closer to the original). The happy ending is wrong. Characters are wrong. The prince looks like a Hollywood character with big Hollywood teeth.

I did find the Little Mermaid’s dopey face odd. It’s an art style all the princesses have through the various retellings, but occasionally in this one she actually looked like she was drunk!

I’ve always adored this story, but this is far from my favourite version.