Review: Sink or Swim (Whatever After #3)

Title: Sink or Swim (Whatever After #3)

Author: Sarah Mlynowski

Genre: Middle Grade

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Source: Library

Format: Ebook

Release Date: April 30, 2013

Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Once again my brother and I are in hot water…

We weren’t planning to mess up the fairy tales. The first two times, we did it by accident. 

But when our magic mirror pulls us into the story of the Little Mermaid, we have no choice but to try and rewrite it. Let’s just say the original story does NOT end happily!

Now we need to:
– Convince our mermaid to keep her tail
– Plan a royal wedding
– Avoid getting eaten by sharks

We’ve got to find a happy ending for the Little Mermaid . . . before she’s fish food, and we’re lost at sea forever!

Review:

This story is based on the original story of The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen, not the Disney movie. In the original story, there wasn’t a happy ending for the mermaid. She made a deal with the sea witch to give up her tongue for legs. As part of the deal, if the prince married someone other than her, she would die. The prince ends up marrying someone else, so she dies at the end. Since Abby and Jonah enter the original fairytales in this series, they had to try to find a way to create a happy ending for the mermaid.

This was a really great story. There was loads of tension. It didn’t seem like they were going to get a happy ending for the mermaid, so the last few chapters had a lot of drama.

I love how this series teaches children the original fairytales, not just the Disney versions. Abby and Jonah alter the original stories so that the princess or main character gets a happy ending for herself, not just to please a man.

Have you read Sink or Swim? What did you think of it?

Author: jilljemmett

Jill lives in Toronto, Canada. She has studied English, Creative Writing, and Publishing. Jill is the creator and content producer of Jill’s Book Blog, where she has published a blog post every day for the last four years, including 5-7 book reviews a week. She can usually be found with her nose in a book. View all posts by jilljemmett