Books like Mermaid Day
By Diana Murray
Mermaid Day gets chanted before you even open it: "Hooray! Hooray!" Your kid shakes an invisible tail fin right along with the dolphins, then goes quiet at the part where one guest isn't sure they're invited. If that mix of splash and reassurance is what you're after, the books below bring more of it.
Eight little ballerinas practice plié, relevé, and jeté together in perfect step until Miss Lina introduces a ninth dancer, Regina, and their tidy rows suddenly fall into disarray.
The Scarecrows' Wedding by Julia Donaldson brings the same farm full of animals pitching in, but the party building toward it is a wedding instead of a birthday.
Less party, more voyage. The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson keeps the rhyme and the sea creatures but slows down for a quieter, tender friendship.
That same warm rule of welcome runs through May I Bring a Friend? by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers, just at a castle tea instead of an underwater ball.
If the sing-song refrain is what you love, Frog Went A-Courtin' by John Langstaff hands you a whole old ballad built to chant out loud.
An ordinary pony wishes to be a glamorous unicorn, and when a burst of pink glitter magically grants her wish, instant fame follows — but not the happiness she expected.
A little kitty feels perfectly unicorn-y and declares herself one — until the real Unicorn clop clop clops over, leaving her feeling as small as a ball of lint.
If your kid wanted more mermaid life after the party ended, Mermaid School by Joanne Stewart Wetzel moves the story to a classroom under the sea.
Ocean creatures piling in for one big gathering becomes forest animals piling into a single umbrella in The Umbrella by Jan Brett.
Skip the rhymes entirely. Flora and the Flamingo by Molly Idle tells its friendship story through movement alone, with flaps your kid can lift.
The same splashy underwater cast returns in Hooray for Fish by Lucy Cousins, but the fish take turns showing off instead of throwing a party.
No ocean party this time. Jennie's Hat by Ezra Jack Keats keeps the theme of friends showing up to make someone feel celebrated, with birds instead of mermaids.
