This past month, New York celebrated the 30th annual Mermaid Parade. For those of you not familiar, hoo boy…where to start. Well, maybe this gorgeous children’s book that will charm all mermaid wannabes, regardless of age. Or gender.

Once a year when vacation starts I march in a parade to celebrate the opening of the ocean during the summer solstice…

Thus begins Melanie Hope Greenberg’s Mermaids on Parade, a wonderful tribute to the most lively, most exuberant, most exciting parade of joy and craziness probably anywhere. It tells the story through the eyes of a young girl and her family heading to Coney Island to participate in the parade, and the prose is perfect for early readers. But really, it’s the wonderful illustrations packed with hidden humor and charming details that will captivate kids.

There’s a wealth of diversity in the pages, from skin color to the outrageous costumes, and of course to mermaids who…wait, is that a goatee?

What’s more fun, is if you head to the Mermaids on Parade Blog and get the backstory on some of the characters featured, who turn out to be real artists and performers. It’s like a real life Where’s Waldo,
only instead of Waldo, you get Kiku Kimonalisa, the pseudonymous leader of a faux Japanese 60’s pop rock band. Way cooler.

For every kid who’s ever questioned whether mermaids are real, yes Virginia. They’re alive and living in Brooklyn.

Find Melanie Hope Greenberg’s Mermaids on Parade from our affiliate Amazon, in independent bookstores, or visit Melanie’s Mermaids on Parade Blog for lots of fun goodies including a selection of free printable mermaid coloring pages including my favorite, Confetti Parade.