The Girl Who Helped a Mermaid (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781946193575)

Combining the imaginative powers of ABC's Once with the whimsical humor and irony of Adam Gidwitz's A Tale Dark and Grimm, Fairendale is an epic middle grade fantasy series that follows fairy tale villains, unexpected heroes, and the magical world that unites them all.

How do you survive a world under the sea?

Dorothy was never one to obsess over the Violet Sea. After a Vanishing spell takes her from the land of Fairendale to an undersea kingdom she didn't even know existed, she wishes she had paid more attention to all the stories. She finds herself in an unknown world of fish and sea snakes and...mermaids.

She watches the merman king and his daughters from afar but mostly hides herself away, amid rumors of a sea witch-at least until the day when the youngest mermaid princess, Arya, comes to her sea cave. The two become fast friends. When Dorothy hears that Arya's sisters plan to take a Fairendale boy as a sacrifice for the sea, Dorothy strikes a deal: If Arya will protect the boy, she will give Arya legs to walk on land. Arya agrees. Dorothy gives Arya the potion. They make their plan.

But Arya does not show up on the day her sisters marked as the one they would offer the sea their sacrifice. And when Dorothy sees the boy is about to lose his life at the hands of mermaids, her anger turns her into a sea witch of magnificent proportions. She froths and fumes and sends the sea roiling. In her anger, she is faced with a choice: Destroy the sea and the mermaids within it, or remember to love and save both land and sea in the process?

In this final conclusion to the Fairendale series, hidden identities are revealed, fairy tale characters take their places on the battle lines, and all begin to wonder the greatest of all questions: Will they be able to put aside their many differences to save their world?

The Girl Who Helped a Mermaid is the final book in the epic fantasy series Fairendale, and tells the alternative story of the Sea Witch from "The Little Mermaid" fairy tale. Fairendale is a middle grade series that explores both familiar and unfamiliar fairy tales, legends, myths, and folk tales. The world of Fairendale revolves around villains and heroes-all on a quest for what they believe is right. Throughout the series, the story of the royal family of Fairendale is woven into the story of fairy tale children fleeing for their lives-children who become what we know as fairy tale villains (according to traditional stories), for one good reason or another.

One cannot always know, at first glance, who is the villain and who is the hero.