Katy Kit

Four young mermaid friends from a team to join in Mermaid Bay’s 10th Midsummer Carnival. “A prize will be awarded to the team with the most spectacular display.” Although they will be the youngest team, Sula, Jasmine, Rosa and Melody decide that they have a chance - if only they can create a magic water pony. The addition of Rosa’s cousin, Coral to the group, and the disdain of the older mermaid girls add the conflict to this otherwise sparkly story.

One complaint with Rosa and the Water Pony is the cavalier way in which the mermaids deal with a spell gone awry. Instead of a water pony, a magic spell turns a friendly seahorse into a sea turtle.

““Inside the magic mermaid circle, change the sea horse to a pony!”
A streak of light rushed through the swirling, shimmering water. Then, the mermaids were thrown backwards by a powerful force. Everyone waited for a pony to appear. But instead of a pony, out of the whirlpool paddled … “A giant sea turtle!” gasped Sula, Melody, and Jasmine at the same time. They burst into laughter.
“I did say I was a little rusty,” said Rose, going red. Still the mermaids laughed.
“Well, I don’t think it’s that funny,” said Rosa hotly. “We don’t stand a change of winning at all without the water pony.” The mermaids stopped laughing.”

In a perfect story, the girls would have won the prize with the turtle. In an imperfect story, they would have turned the turtle back into a seahorse and tried again. In Rosa and the Water Pony, the girls simply find another seahorse and try again, achieving the desired result - with no further mention of the erstwhile seahorse, now a sea turtle.

This chapter book with simple illustrations of the mermaids and their water pony (that bears more than a passing resemblance to My Little Pony ™) is likely to delight young girls, however. It has a simple plot and focuses on teamwork, friendship and fair play. Originally published in Great Britain, I assume that U.S. copies will have spelling corrections. The copy that I read from NetGalley featured standard British spellings of some words, e.g, practise, organised.

Ebook review copy provided by NetGalley.… (meer)