Jan Brett Archives -Imaginations Running Wild-

Mermaid Stories

August 9, 2023July 7, 2024 Jennifer

Get ready for some adorable and fun reading! We’ve rounded up a list of 12 fintastic mermaid stories for preschoolers! There’s rhymes, underwater adventures, cute animals, and plenty of adorable mermaids.

12 Mermaid Stories:

1. The Mermaid by Jan Brett–

Jan Brett has created a beautiful under-the-sea retelling of Goldilocks featuring Kiniro, a young mermaid. Uh-oh, the octopus family is coming home and Kiniro is still asleep in their home! The octopuses are not happy to have a stranger in their home. Kiniro awakens, quickly gives them a gift, and dashes safely off for her own home. Phew! We love Jan Brett’s trademark visual storytelling in borders on every page. The illustrations throughout this book are fantastic! The story takes place off the coast of Japan and showcases beautiful shells, sea creatures, and ocean plants.

2. How to Catch a Mermaid by Adam Wallace–

This book is great for preschoolers. It has a mermaid, awesome pictures, silliness, and a rhyming story! A couple of kids and dog try and catch a mermaid. They have shiny bait and lots of traps, but the mermaid is quite clever and escapes. Oh no, one of their plans backfires and the kids and the dog find that they are the ones trapped. Yikes, a bunch of sharks are coming! What are they going to do? Mermaid to the rescue! Whoo-hoo, everyone is safely returned to shore.

3. Mermaid Dreams by Kate Pugsley–

On a trip to the beach with her family, Maya, a shy girl, wants to play with some of the other children. She falls asleep and dreams she is mermaid! Maya goes on a fantastical underwater adventure in search of a friend. She discovers lots of fun sea creatures before coming across another mermaid! The new mermaid wants to play with her. Maya awakens, but finds that the fun doesn’t have to end because here is a little girl who wants to play! A cute, imaginative story 🙂

4. Mermaid School by Joanne Stewart Wetzel and Julianna Swaney–

Finally, a book with boy mermaids (mer-boy?)! My son was so happy to see that boys could be mermaids too. Join Molly on her first day of mermaid school in this sweet book about starting school. This story shows what little mermaids can expect on their first day of school, including some jitters and making new friends. The rhyming text and cute illustrations will entertain your mermaid-loving child.

5. Little Mermaid (Ten Minutes to Bed) by Rhiannon Fielding–

My son loves the “Ten Minutes to Bed” series! We have read every single one published so far. The stories are adorable and Chris Chatterton’s illustrations are magical! In this story, a little mermaid named Splash just can’t fall asleep. She swims out to explore the under water world around her. Your child will love looking at all of the cute sea creatures and will enjoy Splash’s curiosity. While adventuring, her father’s voice rings out, counting down how many minutes left until bedtime. Will she make it to back home to bed on time? Check this one from your library to find out!

6. The Mermaid Counting Book by Suzanne Diederen–

My son loves counting books and has so much fun looking for all of the objects on the page! In this adorable counting book, little Umi the mermaid explores her underwater world, counting shells and sea creatures. Each page has something new count as the reader makes their way from one to ten. Preschoolers will like the cute pictures and the rhyming text in this book.

7. I’m a Mermaid (Little Golden Books) by Mallory Loehr–

This book has really cute illustrations and short rhymes that teach young readers all about mermaids. Your preschooler will love seeing the mermaids ride seahorses and settle into bed in a seashell. I like that there are both boy and girl mermaids with various skin tones.

8. Oona by Kelly DiPucchio–

You are going to love this treasure hunting duo, Oona the mermaid and her best friend Otto the otter. They go on adventures and search for treasures! There is one treasure that they just can’t reach — the golden crown. The golden crown is stuck in the deep, dark, scary rift. But when the grandest treasure yet is stuck in a deep, dark rift. Oona comes up with all sorts of clever ideas to get this crown, however, each time she falls short. Preschoolers will sympathize with Oona’s frustration at not achieving her goal and the feeling of despair that follows. However, this little mermaid is not going to give up! Read this book and find out how Oona and Otto finally capture the golden crown. There are 2 more books in the Oona series to read too!

9. Can I Give You a Squish? by Emily Neilson–

Kai, a little mer-boy, loves to give hugs, which he and mama call a squish! He hugs all of his ocean friends with exuberance. But one friend, a puffer fish, doesn’t want to be squished! Kai learns that everyone shows affection in different ways. Turns out puffer fish likes to give fin-bumps! This is a sweet story that helps little ones understand that we have to respect our friends’ boundaries.

10. The FurFins and the Mermaid Wedding by Alison Ritchie—

This an adorable book featuring mermaids and furfins, a cute little animal with a mermaid tail. Today the mermaid princess is getting married and furfins are so excited! When distaster strikes and the cake goes missing, the furfins have to find it! On the way they learn a valuable lesson about making sure everyone feels included.

11. Pearl by Molly Idle–

In this beautifully illustrated story, mermaids are the guardians of the ocean. Some watch over the coral reefs, others the kelp forests, and the ocean animals. Young Pearl wants a job too so her mother gives her a grain of sand and instructs her to care for it. one tiny grain of sand? Pearl is so disappointed. However, Pearl soon learns that even something that’s starts out small and seemingly insignificant can grow to make a huge impact!

12. Aqualicious by Victoria Kahn–

While enjoying a fun family trip to the beach, Pinkalicious and her brother, Peter, find a mini mermaid ( a “merminnie’) named Aqua. Pinkalicious and Peter show Aqua how much fun there is to be had on the shore. But when a seagull snatches Aqua, Pinkalicious and Peter must help her get back home.

Thank you for reading mermaid stories with us! Check your local library for these and great books to read together. To help cover the costs of this site, I joined Amazon’s Affiliate program and I provided affiliate links to the books I listed. If you buy an item through one of my links, I may receive a small commission (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for support. Happy reading!

Mermaid Craft!

Make a cute mermaid tail craft out of construction paper and paint!

Animals, Winter

Snow Animals Books

December 29, 2022December 29, 2022 Jennifer

Although some animals hibernate in the winter or migrate to warmer places, there are still plenty of animals who love the snow! In fact, penguins in Antarctica live in snow all year round. Here is a list of 12 snow animals books to read and learn about who lives in the snow.

12 Books about Animals Who Live in the Snow:

1. Who Lives Here? Polar Animals by Deborah Hodge–

This is a fact book about animals who live in the extreme cold. Each page talks about a different animal in a couple, easy to understand sentences that are accompanied by cute pictures. Along the side are additional facts that you can chose to share or not depending on your child’s interest. This book had some of my son’s favorite animals–snowy owls and penguins!

2. The Magical Snow Garden by Tracey Corderoy–

A little penguin named Wellington, who lives in the snow, dreams of his own flower garden. His friends tell him that it is much too cold for flowers to grow here. Nonetheless, Wellington is determined so his best friend, Rosemary, helps him create his own flowers out of bits of paper, springs, gears, and other things that can be repurposed. Together, they create a beautiful garden. Sadly, a snow storm destroys the beautiful flowers. Wellington’s friends won’t let him give up, and together they rebuild the garden better than ever. Preschoolers will adore the cute, whimsical illustrations in this book. And everyone can benefit from the message, “we don’t know until we try.”

3. Winter Dance by Marion Dane Bauer —

This is a sweet story that teaches kids about how animals spend the winter. As the first snowflake falls on the fox’s nose, fox wonders what he is supposed to do in winter. The other forest animals tell him how they prepare for winter. Some fly south, others store food, and some hibernate. Unfortunately none of these ideas will work for fox. Finally, another fox comes along and shares what foxes do in winter — they dance in the falling snow! With such beautiful illustrations, kids will love looking over the pictures and seeing the two foxes twirling about in the snow.

4. Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester–

Here’s a bird who thrives in the snow– meet Tacky, the funniest penguin! He can’t sing, dive, or march the way other penguins do; Tacky does everything his own way. At first this seems to be bad thing, but when the hunters come looking for penguins, Tacky’s odd behavior drives them away! Turns out being yourself is pretty great.

5. Little Owl’s Snow by Divya Srinivasan–

Little Owl is so cute! In this Little Owl story, the forest animals are preparing for winter. Some gather and store food, some hibernate, and some stay awake to play in the snow. Soon winter arrives and leaves a blanket of snow in Little Owl’s forest home. Even though Little Owl misses his hibernating friend, hedgehog, he enjoys the snow with his other friends. Preschoolers will love this bold, bright pictures and gentle story.

6. Ten on the Sled by Kim Norman–

This rhyming, sing-song story follows the pattern of the Ten on the Bed song. The caribou has a sled and soon his nine snow-loving friends join him for a sled ride. One by one, the animals fall off and they form a giant snowball. The animals race the giant snowball down the hill, losing friends as they go. By the bottom of the hill, only the caribou is left on the sled. Your kiddo will giggle as wolf wipes out and fox flips out of the sled. Caribou is lonely and he invites all of his friends to join for another sled ride!

7. Animals Hidden in the Snow by Jessica Rusick–

This book is both tons of fun and offers great information about animals in the snow. Each page takes a look at a different animals and asks the reader to try and spot the animals hiding in the snow. Animals use camouflage to blend in with their surroundings so you have to look carefully. Turn the page to learn interesting facts about the animal you find.

8. A Polar Bear in the Snow by Mac Barnett–

My son really enjoys Mac Barnett’s stories! In this story we get to follow a polar bear on an adventure across a beautiful snow landscape. Sparse text filled with questions to the reader will keep preschoolers engaged. Shawn Harris’ paper collage images are awesome and wonderfully capture the bear’s journey.

9. Polar Bear Babies by Susan Ring —

Learn about the survival skills baby polar bears need for life in the harsh arctic in this short book. The babies need to learn to swim, catch fish, and run around the snow. The cute images of the baby bears greatly appealed to my son.

10. Cozy by Jan Brett–

We were trying to guess what the big wholly animal is and, oh boy, were we wrong. It is a musk ox and they live in Alaska. In this snowy story, Cozy gets separated from his family and gets lonely all by himself. Not to fear because soon other animals seek warmth in Cozy’s fur. We get a great look at different types of animals that live in snow–lemmings, hares, snowy owls, foxes, and wolverines in addition to the musk ox. Cozy’s adventures continue in the sequel, Cozy in Love.

11. Here is Antarctica by Madeleine Dunphy–

This book shows us lots of animals that survive that in the cold in Antarctica. The reader gets to learn about both water and land creatures. The animals who live on the land, live in snow year round. These include three types of penguins (emperor penguins, macaroni penguins, and adelie penguins), leopard seals, crabeater seals, south polar skuas, and the southern giant petrels.

12. Fox Versus Winter by Corey R. Tabor–

Get ready to learn about who migrates, who hibernates, and who stays to enjoy winter in this humorous book. While Fox is one of the animals who doesn’t hibernate or migrate, Fox does NOT like winter. Almost all of his friends either hibernate or migrate, except Rabbit who goes off alone, leaving Fox lonely. Fox gets an idea to make new friends out of snow, but they are not as much fun as his old friends. What’s Fox to do? He decides to fight winter! Get ready to laugh as Fox gets a flame thrower and tries to melt winter. Winter fights back and Fox gets covered in snow. Just then, Rabbit appears. Rabbit teaches Fox to appreciate winter and Fox finds that with a friend by his side, everything can be enjoyable.

I hope you enjoy these snow animals books. I joined Amazon’s Affiliate program to try and help cover the costs of this site. If you buy something through one of my links on Amazon, then I get a small percentage of the sale (no extra cost to you). Thank you for your support! Happy reading 🙂

More Books about Animals in Snow:

Penguin Stories: 10 books about penguins to read with your little one!

Polar Bear Books: 8 books about these beautiful white bears.

Winter Stories: 15 stories about winter that have lots of animals in the snow.

Animals

Books About Polar Bears

November 22, 2022 Jennifer

My son went through a polar bear and penguin phase where he wanted to learn all about them. I searched for polar bear books at our library and made a list of our favorite ones. My son thinks polar are so cute, so great illustrations was a big criteria for selection!

8 Polar Bear Books:

1. A Polar Bear in the Snow by Mac Barnett–

2. Olaf and the Three Polar Bears by Caliope Glass–

It’s no secret that I love Olaf so we had to read to this one! This story is a new take on the classic folktale Goldilocks and the Three Bears featuring Olaf instead of Goldilocks. One day when Olaf was out exploring the woods of Arendelle with Anna and Else, when he got separated from his friends. He came across a cottage and goes in to see if the owners could help him find his friends. Instead of getting into mischief like Goldilocks would have done, Olaf is is his usual loveable self and ends up making friends with the bears!

3. Little Penguin’s New Friend by Tadgh Bentley–

This book is great because it has both a penguin and a polar bear to make my child doubly happy. In this story, a polar bear is coming to visit the penguins’ home! All of the penguins are worried, except for Little Penguin, are worried because they have heard horrible things about polar bears! Yikes! Little Penguin isn’t so sure that these stories are true, and is determined to find out for himself if polar bears are really so terrible. This funny story and great moral of don’t believe everything you hear makes it a great choice for reading to your little one.

4. The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett–

In this arctic version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, author Jan Brett creates a beautiful snowy story. Aloo-ki enters the polar bears’ igloo while they are out and then eats their soup, tries on their boots, and takes a nap in baby polar bear’s bed. Meanwhile, the polar bear family are rescuing Aloo-ki’s sled dogs. Preschoolers will love Jan Brett’s artwork and the cute bears.

5. The Snow Rocket by Derek Anderson–

Friends Romeo and Lou build a rocket out of snow that magically comes to life and flies them far away from home! They land in a city and mistake the new people, animals, and things that discover for more familiar home creatures: penguins, seals, walruses, and fish! The mistaken identities will make kids laugh as the two friends make their way through the city in search of a new rocket ship to take them home. When they are beginning to lose hope, Romeo and Lou board a cargo ship and make a rocket out of cardboard boxes and set off! Kids might just want to make a rocket of their own after reading this!

6. Polar Bear’s Underwear by Tupera Tupera–

Polar has lost his underwear! His friend mouse helps him search. They spot lots of underwear, but none of them are Polar Bear’s. This book features fun cut outs that show a glimpse of the undies featured in the next page. Preschoolers will enjoy guessing whether these are Polar Bear’s or not. Just when Mouse and Polar Bear are about to give up, Polar Bear remembers that he’s wearing white underwear! It’s camouflaged in his fur— silly bear!

7. Polar Bear Babies by Susan Ring —

8. Forever by Emma Dodd–

While this story is more of an ode to mother’s love for her child, it does feature polar bears. The rhyming text and the cute pictures of polar bears were enough to make my child happy. I loved the sweet message that a parent’s love is forever and will always be there.

Disclaimer:

I hope you enjoy these books about polar bears! My son really liked all of these books. I joined Amazon’s Affiliate program to try and help cover the costs of this site. If you buy something through one of my links on Amazon, then I get a small percentage of the sale (no extra cost to you). Thank you for your support! Happy reading 🙂