I totally thought that this was going to be a reworked version of Andersen's story, but besides leaving out the themes about the Little Mermaid wanting a soul (not a game changer from my perspective, since I'm not a fan of this kind of Christian morality) the story stayed relatively true with the Little Mermaid failing in her quest for the Prince's love and becoming seafoam. What actually gives this book a higher rating than average is that the illustrations are so beautifully done. Marks does a fantastic job of using watercolours to interpret the mer-people's underwater landscapes - giving it both the murkiness and indistinct visuals of a world without direct sunlight but still retaining enough of the bright colours and saturation of vibrant blues and greens to keep the images from becoming too dark. ( )