The Little Mermaid (Illustrated)

ThIs isn't the original, this is the shortened version. This is suppose to be atleast ten pages long and I got a shortened version that was four pages including cover. If you want the original go to a different source. Not impressed.

The pictures in this coloring book are too intricate for a young child, but would have been great for an older child. I bought several items with the Little Mermaid theme for my two year old granddaughter's birthday. I wish I had been able to see a sample of the pictures to color and could have assessed the age appropriateness of the coloring book.

I must have gotten my wires crossed somewhere along my childhood. I knew that the Disney movie wasn't the real story. I knew that going in. However, this story was FAR closer to the movie than I expected. For some reason, I remember a story about a mermaid that returns to the sea once a year, not of a mermaid that gains 300 years of service and then immortality from true love. Now I have to do a little digging to find the story I am thinking about, otherwise it will drive me crazy!

As for this particular story, it read fast and had a great theme, as all fairy tales should.

I, personally, don't like to read much fiction but I enjoyed this book. The story was really sad -- I never expected the ending to be so different from the movie. I did slightly enjoy the moral of the story: love is sacrifice.

I love this fairy tale, and I love this illustrator, but I do not love this book. The story itself is unnecessarily wordy and boring. The illustrations, while lovely, are boring, too. That's the short and sweet of it. Disappointment.

This book teaches daughters all the wrong things. She stalks the prince. She changes herself for him enduring extreme pain with every step just to be with him. When the witch is going to take her voice, she makes the mermaid body conscious by telling her "you will still have your beautiful body." Plus it talks about souls and how only people have souls and if he loves her enough that she could be granted a soul. So much dependence on making herself loved by him... Then later she is given a knife to murder the prince and instead takes her own life. That's right, "oh no he loves someone else, I must kill myself because my world is over!" Then she goes to heaven and sees the Angels, but they call them something different, the children of the sky. I don't like the religiousness of the book. Plus if you kill yourself don't you go to purgatory or hell or something? I am not religious but I am pretty sure this is sending your kids the wrong message if you are choosing to raise them that way. This book has zero positive messages and supports a focus on self image that I am trying to keep my kids away from. These are not themes for first and second graders.

I knew this was the Little Mermaid copy I wanted. the store had it and at a reasonable price. I needed it immediately; that service was available and in LESS than 24 hours from my online purchace, the book was in my hands!

The Little Mermaid is one of my favourite fairy tales by the wonderful Hans Christian Andersen. I have always been interested in his authorship and I spent a year of internship to promote Odense as Hans Christian Andersen’s city and wrote articles about his fairy tales and studied them in detail.

This fairy tale is certainly something else. Everyone who has read it and seen the Disney version will definitely be surprised, or have an even worse reaction seeing the Disney film first and reading the tale. Because it IS different. The Disney film is very bright and happy, whereas Hans Christian Andersen’s original tale is sad and melancholic – it simply tells the story of true love; the love one cannot have.

“She laughed and danced with the thought of death in her heart”.

I love the beautiful descriptions, the language and how the mermaid sacrifices herself in order to be with him. I like the idea that an ancient myth (the idea of mermaids) has been incorporated into a fairy tale from the 1800s. There is something very fascinating about mermaids and her troubles, i.e. she can’t get close to him, because she doesn’t have legs to walk the earth.

“But a mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more”.

I can definitely recommend every Hans Christian Andersen-fan to read the original story. There are three options on how you will react to it:
A) You will not like it because it is so different to the Disney version that everyone knows of.
B) You will love the bleak and melancholic atmosphere and be drawn towards it. You will hurt along with the mermaid and feel her troubles of love.
C) You will be completely torn.

Someone had wrongly added this book and its ISBN to the Hans Christian Andersen version when this isn't a copy of that version but an adaptation. Although most of the important parts from the original are used within this version there are still large enough differences to make this story a version of its own.

This was my introduction to Andersen's original version and not the Disney version so I treasure this book, which was found within an Aldi's store. It is a clean enough version that has some of the dark tones of the original but still has been cleaned up for the most part that it can be read to some of the youngsters although parents may still want to skip some parts.

What has always fascinated me with this version is the lovely artwork, which is similar to what you can find from older Japanese anime. I am not quite certain if there is a particular name to the style but it fits the story beautifully while giving the characters a more youthful innocent look and one that is a reminder of "The Last Unicorn" whose movie I also enjoyed.

This is definitely a keeper and a great starter for those who like the original fairytale versions.

I knew this was the Little Mermaid copy I wanted. the store had it and at a reasonable price. I needed it immediately; that service was available and in LESS than 24 hours from my online purchace, the book was in my hands!

The Little Mermaid is one of my favourite fairy tales by the wonderful Hans Christian Andersen. I have always been interested in his authorship and I spent a year of internship to promote Odense as Hans Christian Andersen’s city and wrote articles about his fairy tales and studied them in detail.

This fairy tale is certainly something else. Everyone who has read it and seen the Disney version will definitely be surprised, or have an even worse reaction seeing the Disney film first and reading the tale. Because it IS different. The Disney film is very bright and happy, whereas Hans Christian Andersen’s original tale is sad and melancholic – it simply tells the story of true love; the love one cannot have.

“She laughed and danced with the thought of death in her heart”.

I love the beautiful descriptions, the language and how the mermaid sacrifices herself in order to be with him. I like the idea that an ancient myth (the idea of mermaids) has been incorporated into a fairy tale from the 1800s. There is something very fascinating about mermaids and her troubles, i.e. she can’t get close to him, because she doesn’t have legs to walk the earth.

“But a mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more”.

I can definitely recommend every Hans Christian Andersen-fan to read the original story. There are three options on how you will react to it:
A) You will not like it because it is so different to the Disney version that everyone knows of.
B) You will love the bleak and melancholic atmosphere and be drawn towards it. You will hurt along with the mermaid and feel her troubles of love.
C) You will be completely torn.

Someone had wrongly added this book and its ISBN to the Hans Christian Andersen version when this isn't a copy of that version but an adaptation. Although most of the important parts from the original are used within this version there are still large enough differences to make this story a version of its own.

This was my introduction to Andersen's original version and not the Disney version so I treasure this book, which was found within an Aldi's store. It is a clean enough version that has some of the dark tones of the original but still has been cleaned up for the most part that it can be read to some of the youngsters although parents may still want to skip some parts.

What has always fascinated me with this version is the lovely artwork, which is similar to what you can find from older Japanese anime. I am not quite certain if there is a particular name to the style but it fits the story beautifully while giving the characters a more youthful innocent look and one that is a reminder of "The Last Unicorn" whose movie I also enjoyed.

This is definitely a keeper and a great starter for those who like the original fairytale versions.

I can't say enough about Santore's illustrations; the best ones are exquisite, the less-than-best ones detailed and very lovely to look at. The text remains largely unchanged, though Andersen purists will never be satisfied. The story itself, like all good fairy tales, is complicated and open to many different interpretations. Perhaps you are of the feminist stance that views this tale, and all others of its ilk, with horror because of the pain and disfigurement the protagonist must endure to become 'acceptable' to her love interest, or maybe you are the more old-fashioned, evangelical sort who sees the little mermaid's quest for a soul as noble, self-sacrificing, and the definition of true, selfless love. Or maybe, like me, you're somewhere in between. ( ;

Whatever your views on this classic tale, it's still a cracking good story, one that has appealed to the 'old souls' in children everywhere for years, and it's only made more beautiful and poignant by Charles Santore's wonderful illustrations. (Not to mention the fact that it is an 'old school' fairy tale, which means no candy-coated, neatly wrapped up Disney-fied ending. Expecting everyone to live 'happily ever after' is probably not sending our kids the best message!) If you are an Andersen fan -- or just a lover of fairy tales -- buy it. I have yet to find a better version.

There's something really beautiful about the way this book tells Andersen's depressing story of intense, painful emotions using extremely simple language for children. There are sentences like "she felt so sad, she thought her heart would break" and "tomorrow I will be foam on the sea. I have lost everything I love." Wow.

I'm definitely not a child anymore, but I still read this book sometimes. It's so lovely and sad, though as a child I didn't see it that way... I just liked how in the pictures the mermaids had different coloured shell-bras, and such.

This is a very nice book. A very delightful story that is written in a style both classical and modern at once. This is basically the same Little Mermaid that most are familiar with (The old Disney movie). But this book does have its differences that are essentially evident. The pictures' realistic colors and proportions fit this story well. This was a well-put together story.
I'll admit that it is my personal preference for books where this book loses a star. The Little Mermaid movie and book have always struck me as a tale with many moments of heavy sadness, and that turns me away. The fact that this book is a love-story with fantasy tie-ins doesn't help my attitude.

this was the first little mermaid story i was aware of. i'm not really a fan of disney because they alter the stories, among other things, and so in retrospect i thank my mother for getting me this book when i was young. The story is beautiful and the pictures are as beautiful as the story. This is my standard for the little mermaid story and to date all other renditions i've read have been sub-par in comparison.

Growing up, Disney's version of this story was probably my favorite movie. Id really never known that there was a book until I came across it in the library(which is silly, because this is something of a classic.)

Reading this book rather enraged me. The ending is quite different from the Disney ending and I dont understand why they felt the need to change it. This is a lovely tale of unrequited love as well as failure and disapointment. Every story need not have a happy ending and unfortunately most children's tales do. Maybe Im a pessimist, but it seems that stories where everything works out in the end might be sending children the message of a perfect world where disapointment is out of the norm.

I just wish there were more stories of this sort to give kids a more realistic view of their future, because they have to learn sooner or later.