By Adam Wallace
A gang of children builds trap after trap to catch a mermaid, and she wriggles out of every single one.
The children in this book have decided they are going to catch a mermaid, and they have plans. Elaborate ones. They rig up nets and contraptions and clever underwater traps, and page after page the mermaid slips right out of every one, faster and slippier than they ever guessed. It's the whole appeal of the How to Catch books turned aquatic: a merry chase through reefs and shipwrecks that the children are always, hilariously, one step behind on. It all rhymes, and it all ends friendly.
For a mermaid-loving child who also just wants to laugh, this is pure fun with no bumps in it. The rhyme makes it a natural read-aloud, and because it's part of a big series, a child who loves this one has a whole shelf of How to Catch books waiting. The traps get sillier as they go, so there's a satisfying build even though everyone knows the mermaid is going to win.