There Was an Old Mermaid Who Swallowed a Shark!

by Lucille Colandro, Jared Lee (Illustrator)

Overview

Scholastic's bestselling Old Lady stars in a brand-new adventure series for beginning readers chock-full of hilarious laughs and fun facts!

There was an old mermaid who swallowed a shark. I don't know why she swallowed a shark, but it left no mark!Scholastic's bestselling Old Lady is starring in a brand-new adventure series that will make you laugh AND learn! In this new spin-off, the Old Lady turns into an Old Mermaid, travels down into the ocean, and swallows a shark . . . and a squid, and a fish, and an eel, and a crab, and a sea star, and a clam . . . Why? Well, it was fun to cram her mouth with a clam! Two new characters lead the reader through this hilarious adventure while exchanging some awesome facts about the creatures down under for a light take on nonfiction that's perfect for this age. With expanded sea creature back matter and a search-and-find game at the end, this Old Mermaid is making quite a splash!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781338129939
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	03/27/2018
Series:	There Was an Old Lady Series
Pages:	64
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Lucille Colandro has written many books for children, including the bestselling There Was an Old Lady series illustrated by Jared Lee.

Jared Lee has illustrated more than 100 books for young readers. He has received awards from the Society of Illustrators, the Martha Kinney Cooper Ohioana Library Association, the National Cartoonists Society, and others. He lives in Ohio with his wife and a menagerie of dogs, cats, ponies, ducks, and a few unknown creatures.

Editorial Reviews

01/01/2018
K-Gr 2—This underwater romp is at once funnier and more educational than "There was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly." The mermaid's marine diet is skillfully inserted into the old rhyme ("There was an old mermaid who swallowed a squid./That's what she did!/She swallowed a squid./She swallowed the squid to romp with the shark…") and her antics are observed by a boy and girl in a boat who add commentary on the target animals' habits and features. Closing nonfiction additions complement the silliness with a paragraph each of facts about the creatures featured in the story— sharks, squid, tropical fish, eels, crabs, sea stars, and clams—and a search-and-find game. Lee crams delightful cartoon details onto the undersea spreads. His zany style is reminiscent of Quentin Blake's work; its inclusion here tips a solid text into "read it again" territory. VERDICT The rare book that's perfect for at-home reads and rereads as well as for storytime.—Henrietta Verma, National Information Standards Organization, Baltimore

School Library Journal

2017-11-22
Having eaten pretty much everything on land in 13 previous versions of the classic song, Colandro's capaciously stomached oldster goes to sea.Once again the original cumulative rhyme's naturalistic aspects are dispensed with, so that not only doesn't the old lady die, but neither do any of the creatures she consumes. Instead, the titular shark "left no mark," a squid follows down the hatch to "float with the shark," a fish to "dance with the squid," an eel to "brighten the fish" (with "fluorescent light!" as a subsequent line explains), and so on—until at the end it's revealed to be all pretending anyway on a visit to an aquarium. Likewise, though Lee outfits the bespectacled binge-eater with a finny tail and the requisite bra for most of the extended episode, she regains human feet and garb at the end. In the illustrations, the old lady and one of the two children who accompany her are pink-skinned; the other has frizzy hair and an amber complexion. A set of nature notes on the featured victims and a nautical seek-and-find that will send viewers back to the earlier pictures modestly enhance this latest iteration.Series fans won't be disappointed, but young readers and listeners who know only the original ditty may find this a touch bland. (Early reader. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews