mangofandango 's review for:

The Animal Family by Randall Jarrell

3.0

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I read this aloud to my 6 year old. It has "decorations" by Maurice Sendak, and a very Sendak-style dark, folk-and-fairy tale kind of feel. It's unusual and yet very traditional in some ways. I've never read a story about a mermaid who just decides to live on land without any kind of magical intervention before, and similarly the hunter and the mermaid make a family in similarly strange but sort of practical ways. But at the same time, it feels a bit like The Little Mermaid and a bit like every changeling story ever and a bit like every fairy tale about animals and humans interacting.