Children's: Middle Grade: REAL MERMAIDS DON’T WEAR TOE RINGS author Hélène Boudreau’s next two books in the Real Mermaids series, about a plus-sized, aquaphobic teenager with mermaid tendencies, again to Rebecca Frazer at Jabberwocky, by Lauren MacLeod at The Strothman Agency (World English).
Fourteen-year-old Jade feels like a freak-of-nature when she finally gets her first period while trying on an XL tankini at the mall. It gets worse when she runs into handsome Luke Martin in the feminine products aisle while her dad Googles ‘menstruation’ on his BlackBerry.
But “freak-of-nature” takes on a whole new meaning when raging hormones bring on another metamorphosis— complete with scales and a tail. When Jade learns she’s inherited her mermaid tendencies from her late mother,it raises the question: if Mom was a mermaid, how did
she drown?
Hélène Boudreau writes fiction and non-fiction for children and young adults from her home in Ontario. Her debut middle grade novel, Acadian Star, was released last fall and was recently nominated for the 2009/2010 Hackmatack Children’s Choice Book Award.
