Freak369's Full Review: Scott Altmann - Mermaids: Sirens of the Sea
"Mermaids: Sirens of The Sea" should have been a great coloring book. It has all of the elements that you might expect from an underwater themed book; mermaids, dolphins, starfish, plant life, caves and seashells. What kills the book is the creepy looking mermaids; its not so much that they are weird looking, they are just badly drawn. There's almost no detail to the tail sections and their faces are scarier looking than Bratz dolls. The author, Scott Altmann, has done a lot of releases with Dover Publications and up until I got this coloring book I really like his offerings. I thought that Annabelle would love this since she has a little b it of a thing for mermaids but she flipped through it and handed it back to me. I didn't know why she lacked interest in it until I started going through it. Honestly, it looks like something that a kid drew in the midst of a cough syrup induced psychotic episode.
One of the reasons that I added this to my shopping cart was the mermaid theme and I needed to hit $50.00 to get free shipping. It was priced at $2.99 at the time so I figured that even if it wasn't all that great it wouldn't be that big of a loss. This is one of the few times that I will ever bash a Dover Publication release because 99% of them have all been top notch. I think the biggest issue is the basic and boring look of everything in the coloring book. I know, it is a coloring book so you need to add your own touches to it but that doesn't mean that it has to start out looking like crap. There are thirty drawings in the book and none of them really stand out as being all that impressive. I should have stuck with the Little Mermaid and Mermaids stained glass coloring books instead of branching out with this one.
There are a few good points about the book; the pages are heavy enough that younger kids can color on them without them ripping. It isn't as thick as copy paper but it isn’t as fragile as newsprint. Since the pages are white you are going to get a true color from what you are using on them; newsprint often throws the hue off so yellows, greens and blues look a little off kilter. The pages are perforated but you need to bend them a few times to get them to rip out evenly. I don't suggest using markers in this coloring book because the ink will bleed through to the back side and to other pages. Crayons and colored pencils work best but if you want to use markers, consider making copies of the images [for home use only] and letting kids color on the duplicates. You can work a little bit of homeschooling into this if you want. Since there are sea turtles, seahorses and fish in it you can work the aquatic angle and print up some free coloring pages on underwater life.
To be fair there are some drawings that are pretty cool; the mermaids playing with dolphins, a mermaid riding a seahorse, mermaids picking sea flowers and little baby mermaids are all stand out images but it is a little tough getting over the creepiness of their facial expressions. Most of the mermaids in the coloring book have tails that lack scales; a few are drawn in but the rest is left blank. The detail of the underwater creatures is average so don't expect any of them to knock your flippers off. If I had to give this a rating on a scale from one to ten it would get a three. That's pretty harsh coming from someone like me because I am a huge fan of almost everything that Dover sells.
If you come across this for a dollar or two it might be worth getting for girls that are into mermaids but be forewarned, the illustrations are not as good as other Dover coloring books. When I checked the website the price is now $3.99. For that amount I would expect to get some stickers with it or at the very least mermaids that don't look so freakin' creepy. It is a shame that this was slapped together and so poorly planned; it could have been a great coloring book in an interesting theme. If you are looking for mermaid themed coloring or activity books from Dover, check out "Little Mermaid Stickers", "Little Mermaid Activity Book", "Swimming With Mermaids" and the "Little Mermaid Coloring Book". These range in price from $1.99 to $2.99 and are a lot more fun for girlie girls.
Dive into a magical underwater world with this distinctively contemporary coloring collection. Thirty dramatic and enchanting illustrations -- from on...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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