From Ariel to the current craze for Sirens, mermaids have captivated our imaginations. But what's true and what's fairy tale? For centuries, mermaids have appeared in the folklore of cultures from around the world, including the Near East, Europe, Asia, and Africa. And Disney made everyone want to dive under the sea with Ariel when the movie The Little Mermaid hit theaters in 1989. But what are mermaid stories based on? Many myths say these creatures are half human and half fish, while others claim they are simply manatees mistaken for something more magical. Some grant wishes and fall in love, yet others have lured sailors to their doom. Although we can't say for sure where the tales of these elusive figures first originated, author Sarah Laskow separates the fact from the fiction. This full-color, fully illustrated book tells you all you need to know about the myths, science, and history that surround mermaids.

From cuddly pool floats to rainbow-colored toast toppings, unicorns--the darlings of Instagram--have never been more exciting or more popular. Are unicorns real? Their popularity and enduring role in human culture certainly is. How can you win a fight against a unicorn? Why do some unicorns have wings? Why are unicorns often pictured with rainbows? Get answers to these questions and more in this fun look at unicorns throughout history. This four-color, fully illustrated book provides everything you always wanted to know about the myths, science, and history that surround the unicorn, a creature that has grown even more popular in the twenty-first century. With its stylish design and fresh, captivating illustrations, The Very Short, Entirely True History of Unicorns will appeal to readers--children and adults alike--who can't get enough of the world's most elusive animal.

A teenager follows along as her mother moves from town to town—and man to man—in this coming-of-age novel: “Both hilarious and tragic . . . a radiant debut.” —The New York Times Book Review The inspiration for the cult-classic film starring Winona Ryder, Christina Ricci, and Cher, this novel is narrated by Charlotte Flax, a fourteen-year-old helplessly dragged by her mother from place to place, brief affair to brief affair. When they settle into a quiet New England town in 1963, the teenager yearns to stay put for once. With a convent just steps away from their home, this could be Charlotte’s chance to fulfill her dream of becoming a martyred Catholic saint—despite the fact that she’s Jewish. At the same time, the young caretaker at the convent is inspiring some unsaintly thoughts . . . “Patty Dann gives us a magnificent voice in the young Charlotte . . . Compelling and tender, touching and alive in her search to find some order in the chaos of her life.” —The New York Times Book Review “This is a really funny book about people trying to find something to hang onto in a world that keeps shifting under their feet. Patty Dann guides us through the guerilla war between mother and daughter, through the minefields that lie between being a child and being an adult, in a voice not like any we’ve heard before.” —John Sayles, director and novelist “Moments of pure gold . . . An energetic talent.” —Kirkus Reviews “Both of [the sisters’] characters are sharply etched and recognizable.” —Publishers Weekly “Poignant . . . a quirky charm.” —Booklist

From Homer's Odyssey to Pirates of the Caribbean, Mermaids have fascinated popular culture for centuries. Among the Mermaids is an enchanting collection of classic stories, facts, and tales of mermaids from around the world that will thrill every lover of this romanticized mythological creature. Compiled by Book of the Bizarre author and Magical Creature devotee Varla Ventura, Among the Mermaids includes turn of the century tales of merfolk from Bret Harte, T. Crofton Croker, and W.B. Yeats, along with tantalizing trivia, facts, first-hand accounts, and speculations about mermaids in popular culture. Some facts about the fluid and the fair from the book: Many people believe today that early explorer sightings of mermaids were manatees. (Scurvy + many days away from your lady = a blubbery creature looking supple and bodacious.)Blackbeard, the fierce and terrible pirate, was afraid of his crew being lured into a watery grave by mermaids, so he ordered his ships to avoid certain areas reputed to have a high number of mermaid sightings.Since 2009, the town of Kiryat Yam, Israel has offered a prize of $1 million dollars to anyone who can prove the mermaid off their coast is real. The prize remains unclaimed.

The Mermaid Atlaswill be your ultimate companion in discovering all your merfolk facts! All over the world, wherever there's water, there are stories, legends and eyewitness accounts of mermaids. These magical, mesmerizing people of the deep have been well known for thousands of years, and almost every country and culture has a tale to tell about them. People have written, sung and passed on rumours about mermaids since ancient times, and often reported their own mermaid encounters, too. Do you know the facts and stories surrounding the magical and, often elusive, world of mermaids? This gorgeously illustrated new book includes everything you wanted to know about these mysterious and captivating creatures. Discover their secrets in this beautiful compendium, written by children's author Anna Claybourne and illustrated throughout by award-winning Spanish illustrator Miren Asiain Lora. The colourful spreads will take you on an-around-the-world journey, starting in Europe and the warm Mediterranean to the icy Baltic, as well as through countless isles, lakes and waterfalls, continuing to Africa with its immense lakes, cave pools and swampy deltas. Asia is the next stop with its thousands of islands, beaches, rivers and lakes while Oceania, surrounded by the Pacific Ocean with its scattered islands, seems to be the perfect environment for these mysterious creatures. The journey ends with North and South America, where there are sightings of water spirits and fish-tailed ocean goddesses throughout the whole continent, home to the freezing Arctic, the tropical Caribbean as well as the world's largest jungle. The Mermaid Atlaswill introduce you to the merfolk of the world, whether it's the beautiful Selkies of the Scottish seas, the wily Iara of Brazil who love to outwit travellers or the fearful Ningyo of Japan who can give you eternal life.

How can one day go so very wrong? One minute Meara Quinn is making plans for how she will spend the Summer before her senior year and the next she's finding out that her mother's cancer has returned and they are moving away from the only home she's ever known. Now every day is a struggle as Meara is trying to cope with her mother's illness, being forced to move to another country to live with grandparents-whom she thought disowned her mother-and having weird visions of a father who was absent her entire life. Top it all off with one whopping secret that everyone seems bent on keeping from her, and Meara has the perfect ingredients for a major melt down. The only things keeping her from coming unglued are some new friends and Evan-the son of her mother's childhood friend-who seems to know Meara almost better than she knows herself. Together with Evan and her friends, Meara embarks on a new journey to unlock the secrets that will not only tell Meara who she is, but what she is.

From the author of Lost Boy comes a beautiful historical fairy tale about a mermaid who leaves the sea, only to become the star attraction of history's greatest showman. Once there was a mermaid called Amelia who could never be content in the sea, a mermaid who longed to know all the world and all its wonders, and so she came to live on land. Once there was a man called P. T. Barnum, a man who longed to make his fortune by selling the wondrous and miraculous, and there is nothing more miraculous than a real mermaid. Amelia agrees to play the mermaid for Barnum and walk among men in their world, believing she can leave anytime she likes. But Barnum has never given up a money-making scheme in his life, and he's determined to hold on to his mermaid.