ALA Booklist (Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 CDT 2018)

While snorkeling in a glittering sea, a boy meets a blue-haired mermaid, who, in a series of wordless panels, leads him to the underwater city where she lives. Together they resurface and catch sight of a circus at the shore, which sparks a desire within the mermaid to perform. The slightly saccharine text is offset by Litchfield's rainbow-infused artwork, which evokes the wonder of individuality encompassed by the circus, where tattooed strongmen, trapeze artists, fire-eaters, and clowns happily coexist. With the boy's help, the mermaid joins their ranks, first on display in a kiddie pool, then moving into a glass tank. It would be a depressing state of affairs, if the message of the book weren't about trying new things in order to find where you belong. Consequently, the mermaid's stint with the circus gives her an appreciation of the sea, to which she is lovingly returned by all her new friends. The prismatic illustrations are the real draw of this book, and the mermaid's agency in all her adventures lend it added sparkle.

Kirkus Reviews

In this circus-themed tale, a lonely mermaid experiments with friendship, belonging, and adventure.A brown-skinned, dark-haired kid dives into the ocean and meets a pale, green-eyed mermaid. The two strike up a fast friendship. Together, they explore the depths of the mermaid's underwater home, where a framed photograph implies that the finned protagonist once had a family but is now an orphan. Can the mermaid find family with this new friend, whose home is in a circus on dry land? The tale that follows is a tangle of busy images, sparse text, and an underdeveloped plot, told through the unfortunate metaphor of the big top. The mermaid joins the traveling carnival for a short time before becoming homesick and returning to the sea, but Mantchev's narration claims that the mermaid's fellow troupe members are "strangers who become friends, / and friends who become family." Lines like this, matched incongruently with the story's sequence of events, make for an inconsistent read with little emotional resonance. Complete with the strong man, the tattooed lady, the Orientalized brown man in a turban (seemingly a prop rather than garment of faith), and a nearly all-white audience—and the shocking display of the mermaid in a tank for crowds to gape at—Litchfield's circus does little to challenge the dehumanizing spectacle that this institution is well known for.A big flop. (Picture book. 5-9)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

In an enigmatic story, a boy snorkeling in the waters off a Coney Island-like amusement park has an unexpected encounter: -The world is a remarkable place, which means sometimes you go looking for a fish... and meet a mermaid instead,- Mantchev writes pensively. In a sequence of wordless tableaus, the mermaid-nymphlike in Litchfield-s enchanting art, with blue-green hair and a coppery tail-takes the boy to the ruins of her underwater home. On the surface, a circus is in full swing, full of revelers in long dresses and top hats. The mermaid and boy travel with the circus from city to city, the mermaid performing in small pools, then a glass aquarium. Readers may wonder at the mermaid-s decision to give up the ocean for circus life, but the choice is clearly her own-as is her decision to eventually return home (-Sometimes we go looking for an adventure only to discover exactly where we belong-). Ages 4-8. (Sept.)