View source for Underwater Magic (The Secret Mermaid) by Sue Mongredien

{{infobox1 
|title= Underwater Magic (The Secret Mermaid)
|author= Sue Mongredien
|reviewer= Sue Magee
|genre=Confident Readers 
|summary= The third book in the ''Secret Mermaid'' series makes an enjoyable book for the emerging reader, although it's a book which would appeal to girls rather than boys.
|rating=4 
|buy= Yes
|borrow= Yes
|pages=96 
|publisher= Usborne Publishing Ltd
|date= March 2009
|isbn=978-0746096178 
|website=http://www.suemongredien.co.uk/
|cover=0746096178
|aznuk=0746096178
|aznus=0746096178
}}

It's midsummer at Horseshoe Bay but to look at the weather you'd never believe it.  The wind is howling around Her Gran's Cottage, The Boathouse – and the rain is lashing the windows, but Molly still longs for the magic conch shell to work and for her to be transported to join her mermaid friends.  As she drifts off to sleep the necklace glows with pink sparkles and Molly has a delicious feeling of sinking into the deep.

A long time ago five of the conch-shell necklaces were stolen by the Dark Queen and Molly has already helped her friend Ella to retrieve her shell.  This time she has to help Delphi to find her shell and it's particularly important as her shell is the one that protects sailors at sea.
 
Sue Mongredien has her finger perfectly on the pulse of what children enjoy. The inspiration for this series came when her eldest daughter didn't want to go to her swimming lesson. Sue suggested that she imagined that she was a mermaid, swimming through the pool and that persuaded her to get into the water. It started Sue thinking about what a great story it would be if there really was a girl with the magic power to turn into a mermaid – and so Molly came into being.
 
This third book in the Secret Mermaid series is perfectly pitched for the emerging reader with seventy six pages of text divided into six chapters. There's liberal use of illustrations by Maria Pearson which ensure that the pages are not too daunting – and that there are useful clues to the story if a little help is needed. The vocabulary is challenging but not too difficult for the newly confident reader. Don't worry if you haven't read the first two books in the series, you'll quickly catch up with the story! 

It's a good story too with adventure, intrigue and just a little danger as the girls are pursued by a great white shark and have to negotiate with a rather grumpy sea urchin. It's not a book which is likely to appeal to boys but any girl who enjoys magic and adventure is going to enjoy this book.
 
I'm always a little concerned when a book has a 'sneak preview' of the next adventure as this can put pressure on parents to buy another book when they might not want to do so. Here there are eight pages of [[Reef Rescue (The Secret Mermaid) by Sue Mongredien|Reef Rescue]] taken from the next book. You could well end up buying all six books in the series.
 
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to The Bookbag.
 
For more magic for the emerging reader we can recommend [[Flora the Fairy's Magic Spells (Green Bananas) by Tony Bradman and Emma Carlow]].

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[[Category:Emerging Readers]]