Review - Hello Kitty Presents the Storybook Collection: The Little Mermaid

Hello Kitty Presents the Storybook Collection: The Little Mermaid (Hello Kitty Presents the Storybook Collection)
by Susanne Chambers
illustrated by Karla A. Alfonzo
Date: 2016
Publisher: Abrams Appleseed
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 32
Format: e-book
Source: library

In this new addition to the storybook series, Hello Kitty stars as the Little Mermaid.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

This retelling is a waste of a perfectly good fairy tale. First of all, I really question the wisdom of retelling a story about a character who loses her voice using a character that doesn't even have a mouth! But that's not even the worst part of this book.

The first part follows a simplified version of Andersen's original story. Hello Kitty (as a mermaid) longs to know what life is like on land. During a storm, she rescues a prince from drowning. Then she pines over him and sings sad songs. Eventually, she goes to the Sea Witch for help and gets a potion that will turn her tail into legs... at the cost of her voice. She wants that prince, though, so she drinks the potion.

Everything was fine (albeit really simple) up until the end. The prince recognizes Hello Kitty as the mermaid who saved him, and kisses her cheek in thanks. She gets her voice back, and everyone lives happily ever after. Okay... but there's just one problem: one of the conditions of the potion was that the prince had to fall in love with her to break the spell. But all that happened was that the prince kissed her cheek "to show his gratitude". Does gratitude equal love now? That's kind of a confusing message to be sending young readers.

The illustrations are colourful and sickly sweet, but this is Sanrio, after all. It's to be expected. I did find it a little odd, though, that all the major characters have no mouths (and therefore limited facial expressions) while minor characters like fish, crabs, and starfish are all depicted grinning like idiots. It's difficult to connect to the main characters when their expressions are pretty much blank!

If you're a die-hard Sanrio fan, you might like this one. But if you're looking for a good retelling of "The Little Mermaid", you might want to look somewhere else. This isn't it.

Premise: 2/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 3/5
Illustrations: 2/5
Originality: 2/5

Enjoyment: 1/5

Overall: 1.83 out of 5