Mermaid Dance

by Matthew Van Fleet, Mara Van Fleet (Illustrator)

Overview

From #1 New York Times bestsellers Matthew and Mara Van Fleet comes a charming novelty book filled with mermaids, mermen, and charming underwater animals young readers can dance along with!

Follow along with the merkids as their sea creature friends form a dance party and teach them the narwhal nod, the silly seal spin, polar bear twist, and more! Little ones can use the six sturdy pull tabs to make the characters move as they dance their way to the grand pop-up finale.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781665904919
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books
Publication date:	01/18/2022
Pages:	18
Sales rank:	360,723
Product dimensions:	7.10(w) x 10.70(h) x 2.00(d)
Age Range:	2 - 18 Years

About the Author

Matthew Van Fleet’s innovative books have been introducing children to basic concepts for more than twenty years. His uniquely designed board books invite toddlers to touch, press, pull, lift, and even sniff as they explore colors, shapes, numbers, letters, opposites, and more. His New York Times bestselling titles include Cat, Heads, Alphabet, and Moo, as well as the #1 New York Times bestsellers Tails and Dog. His books have sold more than eight million copies and have been translated around the world. He lives with his family in New York. Visit him online at VanFleetBooks.com.

Mara Van Fleet has worked in children’s publishing for more than twenty years. She is the bestselling creator of Three Little Mermaids, Mama’s Pajamas, Night-Night Princess, and Little Color Fairies.

Editorial Reviews

01/31/2022

In this cheerful first collaboration between spouses Matthew Van Fleet (Chomp Goes the Alligator) and Mara Van Fleet (Mama’s Pajamas), the interactivity starts on the cover: by pulling the first of the six large, solid-feeling tabs, readers can make the tail of a smiling mermaid swish back and forth. Inside, readers meet a “school of merkids” with various skin tones, each of whom has a distinctive, softly iridescent tail. When they all receive seashell-shaped invitations to a dance party, simple rhyming text conveys their groove-related dismay: “ ‘Oh no!’ said a mermaid to their little fishy pal. ‘We really want to go, but we don’t know how.’ ” On each subsequent watercolor pencil spread, marine critter friends school the merkids in dance moves, with pull tabs demonstrating the seahorse swish, the nifty narwhal nod, the silly seal spin, the polar bear twist, and the flippy penguin flap. The twist (“Twist, twist,/ twist, twist,/ twisty, twisty,/ TWIST!” reads the iterative refrain) is perhaps the most impressive, employing a pull tab that moves a polar bear’s body and arms in opposite directions to approximate a swivel. (Clear plastic screens protect the moving parts, adding to the book’s sturdiness.) Each lesson ends with a rousing refrain of “You can dance!” and builds momentum for the final spread, a large-scale pop-up that shows the party in full swing—a fitting close to this interactive feel-good bop. Ages 2–up. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly