The Mermaid in the Millpond
‘Sometimes the only way to save yourself is to save someone else’ is the theme that flows through this mystical story set during the Industrial Revolution. Eleven-year-old Bess, who has just lost her mother, comes to work in a rural cotton mill where conditions are desperate. Beaten and under-fed, the child-workers are told by the ‘gaffer’ there is a vicious mermaid living in the weir pond, so that they don’t try to escape. But soon Bess meets the mermaid and realises that she too is an unhappy prisoner…
The story is told in the first person, using simple sentences close to the voice of a child—ideal for reluctant readers. The hazardous world of the cotton mill is quickly evoked with well-chosen details and language. “I have to watch for when a thread snaps and fix it fast—before the great metal frame of the spinner comes clattering back towards me,” Bess explains. Lucy Strange has a gift for creating unusual, layered characters which hook the reader in. Bess herself is sharp-tongued and self-centred at the beginning, making for a particularly interesting narrator who we warm to as her back-story unfolds. The mermaid with her webbed hands and sharp teeth is more monster than traditional mermaid and adds a wonderful level of tension to the story.
This novella is beautifully produced by Barrington Stoke, on their dyslexia-friendly, cream-yellow paper that here adds to the sense of menace and oppression. Pam Smy’s illustrations, reminiscent of wood-cut prints, are a perfect complement. This is the first book by Strange that I’ve read, and her huge skill in writing this haunting yet emotionally satisfying tale within such a short format leaves me immediately wanting to read more. Job done, I’d say. Suitable for 8+
