Fish Girl

Wiesner, David and Donna Jo Napoli. Fish Girl. 2017. 186p. ISBN 9780544815124. Available as an eBook from Overdrive.

Fish Girl has gills and a tail instead of legs. Fish Girl can’t talk, but can breathe air. Fish Girl lives in an aquarium by the sea on the boardwalk. Though she has an underwater room with all the furnitures of a regular teenage girl, she can’t leave the building. Working with Neptune, the God of the Sea, her role is to swim around and offer tantalizing hints that she exists to the paying customers, without ever being seen. At the end of each day, she collects the coins tourists have dropped in the water and brings them to Neptune, who tells her a story from the time when mermaids lived in the sea and Neptune himself was powerful.

A chance encounter with a girl the same age as Fish Girl changes all of that. Fish Girl is not supposed to be seen, but she was, and the girl is convinced she saw a mermaid. When she returns the next day, the girls begin playing games, and even make contact on the third floor. Neptune’s return interrupts the moment, but the girl covers for Fish Girl and Neptune is none the wiser. Fish Girl begins to notice details that had escaped her. Neptune is not the powerful God he claims to be, but rather a fisherman who found her in the ocean and brought her back here. He tricks the tourists through machinery.

Fish Girl longs for freedom, but doesn’t know how to leave. Livia, her friend, continues to visit, and every time opens up a little more a window to the world Fish Girl did not know existed. Named Mira by Livia, she exists the aquarium one night and discovers to her surprise that her tail transforms into legs. Soon, she is exploring the entire house and even the boardwalk beyond. But Neptune is not as dupe as he appears, and he closely monitors Fish Girl. When he catches Livia and Mira together, Neptune knows that Livia will tell the authorities, and he schemes to hide Mira forever. Mira has other plans, however, and with the help of her trusted friend Octopus, she will attempt to find her voice before the storming sea reclaims the aquarium.

Beautifully illustrated by three time Caldecott illustrator David Wiesner, Donna Jo Napoli’s story is based in the folklore of the mermaid and demonstrates that sheer will can overcome most obstacles, but that a friend can help take the first step.