Title A Story about Witches, Warlocks and Such Author Roxanne Roberts Illustrated By Roxanne Roberts Publisher 2011 First Printing 2011
	Title A Story about Merpeople Author Roxanne Roberts Illustrated By Roxanne Roberts Publisher Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Co. - 2011 First Printing Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Co. - 2011
	Category Children Warnings None Main Characters --- Main Elements Mermaids Website ---

When a tourist stops for the night in the beautiful beach town of Bowen, in North Queensland, Australia, resting and enjoying her surroundings are the only expectations she can imagine. That evening , the young woman takes a picnic basket down to the water's edge for her dinner and meets a crab, who just so happens to pinch her bottom!

As the woman daydreams about the ocean at her feet and relaxes to feel the environment around her, a beautiful mermaid suddenly pops out of the water and tells her about the wonderful world beneath the sea. What special message will the mermaid ask the young woman to pass on to the children who live on the land?

Angel Wings, Faery Duest and Other Magical Things: A Story About Merpeople will delight and surprise readers as it weaves a breathtaking tale of the mysteries and gifts of the sea.

A whimsical tale of a girl having a picnic lunch by the sea and having an encounter with a mermaid, illustrated by the author with simple pencils sketches. While the simplicity of the sketches were lovely, I wasn't a big fan of the way the artist drew the eyes of the humans, they kind of freaked me out! But the crab and other sea creatures were lovely.

A good portion of the tale is simply the main character (never named) arriving in Bowen, stopping off at an inn (whose keeper might very well be a leprechaun!) and picking up some lunch for a picnic. That takes us to page 17 out of 21. While it teaches us, both young and old, how to get into the right state of mind for a magical encounter, it only left four pages for the encounter itself.

The tale ends with a message to protect the oceans but other than lines like "With me perched on a rock and she sitting in the water, we talked of all the things she knew."...and well...that's pretty much it. No mention of the types of wonder one might encounter under the sea. No tales of magical mermaid castles, dolphins dancing in the surf, coral reefs full of more colour than one can imagine. So I was rather of disappointed by that. The book wishes to teach children to care for the oceans but didn't show them why.

I haven't read the other book, the one with the witches, and the author is working on another book with guardian angels, unfortunately this one had a lot more potential.