Review: Mermaid Holidays: The Talent Show

Jump on board the Riptide Railway and travel to Turtleville, where best friends Sophia Seashell, Willow Wave, Chloe Coral and Olivia Ocean are meeting up for the school holidays.

The four mermaids have grown up together and have known each other since they were merbies and are inseparable. 

They are excited to learn about the upcoming first ever talent show being held with a trip to the adventure park Guppy Cove as first prize.

Sophia is especially excited as she has always dreamed of being a singing popstar and decides to create a whole singing and dancing act to show her friends.

The friends get together and while they wait patiently for Sophia to show up, they think about their joint talents that they could showcase. Maybe they could perform magic tricks or synchronised swimming? However, everything changes when Sophia shows up.

Sophia pulls out her super-sparkly sunnies and her glitter microphone and launches into a song by her favourite group The Flyfish Girls. Sophia swishes, swooshes, whizzes and whooshes all around the lagoon while hitting the low and high notes of the song.

The mermaids cheer and clap but are instantly worried as none of them can sing, but Sophia really wants to sing. Smedley, Sophia’s sidekick suggests the other mermaids can show off their talents and perhaps it can be incorporated into the performance.

So, the mermaids perform their talents, they bop and boogie, rap and rhyme and play the shell trumpet, but Sophia loses her temper and demands that the mermaids must sing if they have any chance of winning.

Rehearsals begin in earnest as the talent show is drawing closer, but the mermaids feel they sing like screeching sea turtles. The mermaids try their hardest, even putting on the bedazzled costumes that spell out Sophia and the Singing Seashells. But enough is enough and they accuse Sophia of being Miss Bossy Fins and refuse to take part in the talent show. Will Sophia’s need for the spotlight ruin their friendship, will the show go on? All will be revealed once the curtain rises.

This glittery, pink comically illustrated book is one all little mermaids will love. It features best friends that share everything, annoying brothers who play constant practical jokes and comical characters that keep the story on track and enjoyable.

Title: Mermaid Holidays: The Talent Show

Author: Delphine Davis 

Illustrator: Adele K Thomas

Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia, $9.99
Publication Date: 2 April 2019

Format: Paperback
ISBN:  9780143796510
For ages: 4 - 8
Type: Junior Fiction Younger