Moons and Mermaids

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

If you are in the mood for something a little different, this book is a
terrific combination of simple storytelling and one-of-a-kind
illustration. The narrative is about a little girl who uses her
imagination to transform herself from a human to a mermaid, from a
mermaid to a sea turtle, from a sea turtle to an angel, from an angel to
a seahorse, from a seahorse to a rooster, from a rooster to a flying cat
... and eventually back into a little girl again. The essential message
of this tale is that if you allow your imagination to run free, nothing
is impossible.

Author/artist Laura Jolicoeur does not clutter up the story with a lot
of words. By paring her prose down to the barest essentials, she
actually gives the story extra momentum because each magical
transformation is presented as a matter-of-fact statement.

What really makes this book special, however, is Jolicoeur’s choice
of illustration mediums. Jolicoeur is an accomplished ceramics artist
and for this book she has created a series of original panels that could
easily tell the story even without the words. Each tile has an Old World
medieval ambiance to it that complements the fairy-tale tone of the
storyline perfectly. (The ceramic tiles were even featured in their own
exhibit at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.) Moons and Mermaids is a
lovely little book that readers of all ages will enjoy. Highly
recommended.