Do Little Mermaids Wet Their Beds?

Little Cecelia, who has a problem wetting her bed, has a wonderful dream where she meets a mermaid who assures her that her bedwetting problem will soon be solved.From School Library JournalPreS-K-Even though the four-year-old girl in this rhyming text can do many things for herself, she still wets her bed. Then, one night, she has a dream about an adventure undersea with a mermaid. At dawn, the mermaid confesses that she used to wet her bed. She tells the child, "I'm sure when she was four/the Queen of England wet her throne." The little girl then returns home where her mother wakes her exclaiming, "Cecelia, your coat is soaked!/Your hat is wet! But why,/Cecelia! You clever girl-/your bed is nice and dry!" The dream/reality dichotomy in the text raises some concerns. If readers are meant to believe that the two girls really have this experience, then Cecelia wasn't in her bed all night so of course it's dry in the morning. If it's a dream, the wet coat and hat then confuse the issue. The mixed-media illustrations have a sunny, airbrushed softness. A simple single line defines the cartoon characters, with the mermaid as Cecelia's twin and a sweet sidekick stuffed bear. However, there are several places where the illustrations and text just don't mesh.-Martha Topol, Traverse Area District Library, Traverse City, MICopyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.About the AuthorWillis is an Albert Whitman author.