Mermaid Mary Margaret

Rating:
Summary: Mermaid Mary is wonderful!
Review: After reading this book (voraciously on my lunch hour) I found myself thrown back into my own childhood. It's a great read for adults as well as late elementary school aged kids. Mermaid Mary is charming and determined! This book made me feel (as a 27 year old woman) the way the Ramona books made me feel as a kid. It helped me to remember what it feels like to trust your gut instincts and be true to yourself. MMM embraces who she is and blooms as a result. I remember all of these feelings! Her trip with her grandmother as a companion in place of her recently passed grandpa is touching, exciting, and reminded me what it felt like to loose a parent and deal with that loss. Not only do I identify with Mermaid Mary, but I feel that there is a piece of her in all young girls. This book gets five stars from me and reminds me to embrace the dreams that I have that might seem silly or unimportant in the big scheme of things. Not only is the book GREAT, but there is a very fun interactive website that can be used in conjunction with the book for classroom or homeschooling purposes! (www.MermaidMary.com) I will be following this authors career and look forward to treasuring more books as fast as she can write them. I hope to see my collection of childrens and junior literature expand with Lynn Hazens name showing up frequently on the spines!

Rating:
Summary: Mermaid Mary Margaret...Marvelous!
Review: If I could choose a young girl for my very own, it would be red-headed Mary Margaret--a girl who wishes with all her heart to be a mermaid. I read this riveting book, cheering for MMM with every turn of the page. Even though girls will absolutely love her, everyone will find the book refreshing. Set on a cruise ship in the Grecian Isles, Lynn E. Hazen has created a world so real that I smelled the salty air and olive oil even in these Blue Ridge Mountains. If I ever cruised into a Grecian port, I'd fully expect that spunky red-headed Mary Margaret to greet me as I disembarked the ship! This is an author that I'll keep my eye on. I'm anxious to see where she'll take us next.

Rating:
Summary: Mermaid Mary Margaret...Marvelous!
Review: If I could choose a young girl for my very own, it would be red-headed Mary Margaret--a girl who wishes with all her heart to be a mermaid. I read this riveting book, cheering for MMM with every turn of the page. Even though girls will absolutely love her, everyone will find the book refreshing. Set on a cruise ship in the Grecian Isles, Lynn E. Hazen has created a world so real that I smelled the salty air and olive oil even in these Blue Ridge Mountains. If I ever cruised into a Grecian port, I'd fully expect that spunky red-headed Mary Margaret to greet me as I disembarked the ship! This is an author that I'll keep my eye on. I'm anxious to see where she'll take us next.

Rating:
Summary: Touching New Novel for Middle Readers
Review: Spunky ten-year-old, Mary Margaret is forced to face a tough mission, when her Mother asks her to accompany her recently widowed Grandmother on a trip to the Greek Islands, where she is hoping to dump the ashes of her beloved dead husband in the ocean. Mary Margaret doesn't know if she's the one who should be attending the cruise with her Grandmother. After all, it's a seniors-only cruise, and Mary Margaret's Grandmother is taking it to get away from life for a bit, and to participate in a little rest and relaxation. However, after a bit of time, Mary Margaret meets many new friends, helps her Grandmother to properly say goodbye to her husband, and gets to fulfill the dream that she's always had, which is to be a mermaid, which she gets to do when she is asked to participate in a beachside wedding.

Lynn E. Hazen has proved that she can compete against the big dogs in the world of writing with her first novel MERMAID MARY MARGARET. Mary Margaret is a spunky character, who is filled with love, questions, curiosity, and intelligence. She is wise beyond her years, even if she doesn't know it yet, and her outspoken personality shines through in her many, wonderful journal entries. Come aboard the cruise with Mary Margaret, and learn everything you need to know from a ten-year-old, red-headed, mermaid-in-training. You won't be disappointed.

Erika Sorocco
Book Review Columnist for The Community Bugle Newspaper

Rating:
Summary: kudos to PBJ and her new books
Review: Thanks for another great book to add to my class library. My first graders love the Spike stories and Momma's Magical Purse. We can all relate to our mother's purses filled with goodies and surprises. A great read for the classroom!