Review of The Fisherman and his Foundlings

[SunVixen]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Fisherman and his Foundlings" by Phillip Leighton-Daly.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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The book The Fisherman and His Foundlings by Phillip Leighton-Daly tells about parental love. One day an old fisherman found a little mermaid on the seashore. Her tail’s fin was barbarously cut off. The kind fisherman took pity on the wounded child. He began to treat the little mermaid and take care of her like his own daughter. Of course, he couldn’t imagine that his kindness would enrage the evil queen of the merfolk.

This book is flawlessly edited. It does not contain any typos or errors. In addition, The Fisherman and His Foundlings is written in a very rich and vivid language. The author is especially great at describing surroundings. Most impressive is the description of the sea queen’s chambers, built from the wreckage of sunken vessels. It seems that the author himself visited this strange underwater palace. Despite the fantastic plot, some moments in this book surprise with a kind of realism. For example, the author mentions that merfolk cannot cry. They only open their mouths like fish. Indeed, how to cry underwater?

Besides, The Fisherman and His Foundlings has excellent illustrations. This is very important for a children's book. By the way, these illustrations have one interesting feature. Almost all images of the underwater world and merfolk are made in cold, gray, blue and green tones. When the artist begins to paint land and people, orange, red and brown colors also appear in the illustrations. As a result, these illustrations really depict two different worlds.

As mentioned above, this book is about an old man and his adopted mermaid daughter. To the contrary, most of the stories about the relationship between humans and merfolk are about romantic love. However, the family ties between a parent and a foster child that overcome the difference between biological species, deserve to be praised in the literature, too. By creating The Fisherman and His Foundlings, the author has skillfully filled this annoying gap. Phillip Leighton-Daly was able to give the old theme of the relationship between the inhabitants of land and sea a new twist. Along with that, this story turned out to be very touching.

Thus, The Fisherman and His Foundlings is a perfectly written, unusual and very touching literary work. Perhaps overly fastidious readers may find that the unnamed characters in this story lack depth. Nonetheless, it should be remembered that The Fisherman and His Foundlings is undoubtedly a fairy tale. In such works, the characters are usually very plain. After all, no one asks the question of what kind of psychological trauma made the evil stepmother from the fairy tale about Snow White talk to her mirror. For this reason, some primitiveness of the characters in this case shouldn’t be considered a drawback of The Fisherman and His Foundlings.

Therefore, I give this book 4 out of 4 stars. In theory, this literary work is intended for young adults. Nevertheless, The Fisherman and His Foundlings is much more like a fairy tale for children. An abundance of illustrations, plain nameless characters, a touching plot and a certain moralizing stance are obvious signs of a fairy tale. Accordingly, this book is more suitable for children.

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The Fisherman and his Foundlings
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[Soraya Bayah]

I am eager to know how the father and foster daughter stood up against the sea queen. The child inside of me is into fairytales, so I sure will get a copy to admire this work of art. Thank you for the detailed and nice review, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[SunVixen]

I am eager to know how the father and foster daughter stood up against the sea queen. The child inside of me is into fairytales, so I sure will get a copy to admire this work of art. Thank you for the detailed and nice review, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

This site categorized this book as "Young Adult". So I decided that this book is a fantasy book. As it turned out, this was a fairy tale for children. At least it's a well-written and beautifully illustrated fairy tale.

Anyway, thank you for stopping and commenting.

[Soraya Bayah]

I am eager to know how the father and foster daughter stood up against the sea queen. The child inside of me is into fairytales, so I sure will get a copy to admire this work of art. Thank you for the detailed and nice review, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

This site categorized this book as "Young Adult". So I decided that this book is a fantasy book. As it turned out, this was a fairy tale for children. At least it's a well-written and beautifully illustrated fairy tale.

Anyway, thank you for stopping and commenting.

Oh I believe it made you disappointed that it was listed in the wrong genre. But I agree that at least it is a great book.

No worries, I hope we can support each other.