About a month ago, S and I took a trip to my favorite used bookstore. S had one mission: find as many Disney books as possible. That mission failed spectacularly, but the trip itself was a success because we walked out with one of S’s new favorite books: Jessica Love‘s Julián is a Mermaid.

I suspect that S’s initial willingness to read the book at the bookstore was related to the fact that it’s about mermaids, and therefore closer in subject matter to a Disney book than anything else we found, but the book has stood on its own for weeks now, no Disney required.

Given the patterns around S’s favorites, this isn’t surprising. We’ve got (1) a favorite subject matter, (2) a quick introduction to our main character and that subject matter, and (3) bright, active illustrations.

Exhibit A: The first two pages of the story.

We meet our main character and learn what he’s all about: “Julián LOVES mermaids.”

The capital letters convey excitement and the depth of Julián’s love for mermaids, and the spare text keeps our focus on exactly that.

S’s consistent response to that line: “I do too!”

S has recently hit an age where identifying similarities with other people has become very enjoyable. S wants to know who else likes raisins/granola/younameit. The fact that the book comes out and says exactly what Julián loves gives S an immediate point of connection with Julián. They both love mermaids.

Other things that S finds relatable/enjoyable in the story:

• the subway
• a parade
• playing dress up
• fish
• MERMAIDS (not just Julián’s love for them, but their actual presence in the story).

The illustrations are another huge draw. They are colorful, varied, and have tons of mermaids in them. We flip through to all the pages with mermaid pictures, including the beautiful end pages, which depict Julián and his abuela as mermaids.

Exhibit B: This is a favorite image because it is bright, active, and has tons of different kinds of fish to point out. Plus Julián’s mermaid tail.

The text in this story is incredibly spare (only 86 words across 23 sentences, with 11 wordless spreads), which puts even more focus on the illustrations. When they are this beautiful, it works quite well. It also means we finish reading the story relatively quickly, which I think is a key factor in S’s re-read requests (as well as my willingness to indulge them).

Things that (I think) go over S’s head:

As far as I can tell, S does not understand the story on a deeper level than the basic plot.

S does not seem to pick up on Julián’s fears that his abuela may not like him dressing like a mermaid. Nor does S seem to understand that the images show Julián imagining himself as a mermaid with long hair while on the subway. I have had to point out that the mermaid there is Julián.

But the basic plot and illustrations are enough to captivate S. It’s another check mark in the column of having enough hooks for a younger reader, even if your primary target is slightly older.

Julián is a Mermaid By the Numbers

Pages: 32 pages of what I would consider the “main” book, though we also spend a lot of time looking at the final end pages, since those feature a number of mermaids in them

Word Count: 86

Words Per Illustration: 3.58 if you don’t include each of Julián’s individual “becoming a mermaid” images as a separate illustration; 2.15 if you do

Words Per Sentence: 3.74