I really enjoyed this book. A different, sweet book where I couldn't guess the ending. Highly recommend!

Maybe a Mermaid is an excellent book for middle-schoolers. It has mystery, intrigue, friendship and was easy to read. Anthoni Gillis, an eleven-year-old girl, is heading to Eagle Lake for a much needed vacation with her Mom., Carrie Gillis. They move a lot because of her mother's job as a home-salesperson for Beauty and the Bee cosmetics. She was so good at it that they won a Beemobile ( a yellow hybrid car wit black stripes and fuzzy antennae), but sales have been dropping and she's got to meet her quota to move up to the next level. Anthoni helps with setting up goals and reminding her mother of their plans and the Beauty and the Bee way to accomplish them. The Gillis Girls are staying at the Showboat Family Resort where Carrie had the Best Summer of Her Life, 6 years in a row. Anthoni (named after her Grandfather) is looking forward to making a True Blue Friend and reconnecting with her childhood friend, Maddy Quinn. Nothing is as they remember it, though, including the manager, Charlotte Boulay, a former vaudeville performer. The Gillis Girls spend the summer trying to regroup, make friends and for Anthoni, learn to swim. She learns a lot more then that from DJ, the unusual boy next door, and her old friend Maddy, who's dream is to see a mermaid. Anthoni makes some big mistakes along the way, and learns a lot about herself, her mother and Charlotte Boulay...and mermaids!

I loved this book. I think middle schoolers will love it too - it was a fun read.. The story was inspirational without being preachy. There is something for everyone to identify with and something great to take with you when you're done.

Anthoni Gillis and her mother have moved frequently as her mother moves up in the ranks of Beauty and the Bee cosmetics. When her mother moves up a level, she takes Anthoni on a long-promised vacation to Showboat Resort at Thunder Lake, a place she spent six "perfect" summers at when she was a girl. When the two arrive, the whole place is in disrepair and is being run by Charlotte Boulay, the now elderly daughter of the owners. Anthoni's mother reconnects with her childhood friend, who isn't really interested in spending time together. Anthoni hopes that she and the daughter might become True Blue Friends, but that doesn't work out either. Instead, Anthoni starts hanging around with DJ, and the two discover some secrets about the resort and Charlotte. Back in the day, Charlotte was the Boulay Mermaid, but how she managed the act is something Anthoni doesn't understand. Since Anthoni's mother's business is not doing well, the two plan to move to Chicago when their time is up at the resort, and Anthoni hopes she can make a friend before they go. When she tells a potential friend that she can show her a REAL mermaid, Charlotte graciously agrees to help, but when the show almost ends in disaster, Anthoni is forced to face some difficult truths.

Strengths: I am a complete sucker for run down resorts and especially Storybook Forest theme parks. The setting was awesome, and I didn't even mind the horrible flashbacks I had to swimming lessons in the lake! Anthoni and her mother's various positive mantras were great fun, and I also had some Amway flashbacks-- my parents sold it briefly, and I helped with the various demonstrations of the products. Anthoni and DJ had just the right level of supervision that they were safe but were able to get into some trouble! The inclusion of information of vaudeville was fun. There should be more middle grade novels about vaudeville!
Weaknesses: I couldn't pin down the timeline. Charlotte seemed like she would be about 90, but the mother would have been at the resort about 20 years ago. I didn't think about it too hard, but something seemed not quite right.
What I really think: I liked this, but I'm not sure how much appeal it would have. I have reached the point in the year where I have no budget left. If I got a copy of this for free, I would put it in the library, but I'm not entirely sure I'll buy it. And yes, I get a LOT of books that I send to other schools because I know my students just won't pick them up.

Eleven-year-old Anthoni Gillis grew up hearing her mother Carrie’s memories of Thunder Lake and the Showboat Resort. It was a magical place that Anthoni was eager to experience herself. The Showboat Resort is not magical in that it promises fairies or mermaids, or even X-Men-level mutants; it was a place where True Blue Friends were found and made.

As a sales rep and team leader for Beauty and the Bee products, Anthoni’s Mom moves them around frequently and it has been difficult for Anthoni to make friends, let alone a friend who will remember her after she’s gone. A summer vacation at the Showboat Resort sounds like just the thing both Anthoni and her mom could use. Besides the promise of a True Blue Friend, a vacation at the Showboat resort means their business goals have been met. They can relax from the hustle.

“Mom never waited for magic to come to her. She made her own.”

Maybe a vacation will offer Carrie a reprieve from having to turn every new person she meets & old friend she has into a client or, even more necessary, a colleague. And maybe a vacation at Thunder Lake will offer Anthoni an opportunity to see her mom in a different way: someone who is less about ‘sticking to the plan’ than previously believed. Only ‘sticking to the plan’ is a good and necessary thing in Anthoni’s mind. Stability and comfort is found in writing and implementing business plans. (I totally have a friend or three like this). Anthoni has her own plan for how to achieve her goal of a True Blue Friend.

Needless to say, Anthoni’s business plan is not fail-proof. That list of what she’s looking for in a friend and how she is going to go about making a friend are going to meet interference. That beautiful book cover image should have a girl in a sparkling bathing suit, and there should be absolutely no mermaids—because Anthoni is not about Mermaids, or even Maybes.

“Gillis Girls Don’t Believe in Maybe.”

The Gillis Girls have a lot of declarations between them that read like motivational posters. The statements integrated into Anthoni’s narrative and narration add an unexpected form of whimsy, especially when they are maybe revealed as much a form of fantasy as any other tale told in Maybe a Mermaid. The owner of The Showboat Resort, Charlotte Boulay, would say that people will believe what they need to believe—and it’s all in the sale’s pitch. She would also, quite bitterly, suggest that there is no such thing as a True Blue Friend.

The problem is, that while Anthoni could’ve used a friend before vacation, she could really use one now that things with her mom and their life come under serious strain. Anthoni can’t afford much more uncertainty, and she takes a page from her observations of her mother: she will make her own magic. In order to be True Blue Friends with Maddy Quinn, she’ll need more than a common obsession with X-Men comic books. She’ll need to discover the secret of the Boulay Mermaid and hope she’s as real as Maddy believes her to be.

The Boulay Mermaid was part of the vaudeville world of the early 20th century. The Showboat has countless photographs of acts on its walls from back when the resort hosted performances. The Boulay’s were actors and creators in vaudeville. Cameron does quick, light work bringing this bit of history to the fore. And, of course, it will provide common ground between the eccentric Charlotte Boulay and an earnest Anthoni Gillis. They both traveled with their working parents; both of their parents selling one-of-a-kind opportunities—one for beauty products, the other entertainment. Charlotte understood Anthoni’s loneliness.

Cameron writes plenty of quirky traits for her characters, but Charlotte is by far the oddest. She’s startling, but Charlotte proves carefree enough, risky enough to relieve the tension built into all the other characters. She is the vaudeville act that offsets the “real world” anxieties. Every character of any significance in Maybe a Mermaid is in some kind of conflict. They could all do with the idea of possibility; that there is a possibility of something more, of something else; that magic does exist. A mermaid would affirm something for Maddy, just as a friend would affirm something for Anthoni.

That Charlotte Boulay is also very human is an important realization for Anthoni to make. There’s the person we are, and the one we want to be seen as. There is the Anthoni who cannot swim and should be with the small children learning to blow-bubbles in the water, and there is the one wearing a sparkling swimsuit splashing around with the big kids, able and unafraid to swim in the lake. There is the Anthoni who can genuinely appreciate a vampiric mermaid comic, but cannot believe a mermaid actually exists in the lake—but who will say she does to get the friend she wants (the friends she believes she needs). It’s harmless until it isn’t.

Anthoni will risk a true friendship, risk another’s dignity, and risk her own life, to prove herself worthy and gain a friend. Wow, that sentence makes this middle grade novel seem darker than it is. Cameron delivers light and warmth in DJ’s efforts at camouflage despite his clumsiness and his arm in a cast; Julie’s colorful and energetic presence; Maddy’s wall art and water ski skills among other textured characterizations that add an earnestness that’s heart-warming and sweetly heart-aching.

Maybe a Mermaid will get to the bottom of how much grit and magic is required to ease the harder edges of real life and what is true blue in any relationship. And Anthoni will find herself with maybe more than a single friend to remember her.

That Cameron will write an unlikely friendship into a middle grade novel is hardly rare, what is noteworthy is how she goes about it. The clumsy, sweet, and intensely loyal DJ and Chapter 35 are anticipated, regardless at how heartwarming the effect. But that Epilogue is the clincher, that smile of delight that is the wink to the wave farewell.

That this is Cameron’s debut novel is a delight, because it is a seriously strong first offering. She’ll be one to watch.

Recommended for readers of contemporary fiction; of friendship stories; of Kate DiCamillo, Erin Kelly Estrada, Barbara O’Connor. Its a good addition to stories involving single parents as well as frequent changes in address.

And yes, Gilmore Girls might have come to mind with this one.

Thank you to @netgalley and @fsgbooks for the digital ARC of Josephine Cameron's (@pleasecomeflying) MAYBE A MERMAID. Although all opinions are my own, please note I have excellent discernment when it comes to books.
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Things are not what they seem at the once-great Showboat Resort where eleven-year-old Anthoni "Gills" Gillis and her makeup-hustling, platitude-spouting mother come to stay for the summer. The only other person at the run-down resort is eccentric elderly owner Charlotte Boulay, who may be a ghost, or insane, or… a mermaid.
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A much-anticipated reunion with True Blue friend Maddy Quinn (from Kindergarten) quickly becomes a struggle to impress Maddy and rekindle their friendship. Also, Anthoni is struggling for the survival of her her mother’s quickly-tanking honey-based MLM makeup empire (are they on vacation, or is Mom a deadbeat on the run from the landlord in Chicago?)
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In struggling to impress Maddy, Anthoni quickly needs to produce the mysterious Boulay mermaid, who may live in the resort’s lake. But doing so may cost Anthoni and Charlotte their safety and happiness.
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Woven in are themes of deception, betrayal, and nobody being exactly what they seem.
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Love:
*The reader is left with questions about how much of the magic is real and how much of it isn't, kind of like in real life. This book is just scary enough.
*Anthoni does realize she's pursuing the wrong kind of friends (disloyal, superficial) and treating her loyal “weird” friends DJ and Charlotte poorly, but the message isn't heavy-handed.
*Neat parallels between sleight-of-hand business models such as vaudeville and MLM are introduced in
*Anthoni is able to stand up to her hot mess of a mother about her many irresponsibilities… the mom begins making progress on a few, which is empowering but realistic.
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Give to: fans of Natalie Lloyd and Lisa Graff.
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MAYBE A MERMAID will surface March 26, 2019 from Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

#netgalley #maybeamermaid #josephinecameron

This is the story of Anthoni and her mother who embark on a summer vacation. Anthoni's mother has just been awarded as highest earner in a Mary Kay-type business. To reward themselves, they go on a trip to the same vacation spot that Anthoni's mother enjoyed as a child. When they arrive, they find the resort dilapidated and disappointing. Anthoni soon learns that her mother was not the high earner at all, but that they put down a non-refundable deposit at the resort and that they don't have the money for rent back home anyway. Anthoni soon hears local lore of a mermaid at Thunder Lake and becomes fascinated by the idea. This summer she is on a quest for a True Blue Friend and feels confident that she can make it happen with Maddy, the daughter of her mother's old friend. She quickly befriends a few oddballs including the klutzy DJ and Charlotte Bulay, child of vaudeville performers. Anthoni learns a lot about what it means to be a friend and both she and her mother grow along the way.

I liked this story very much, the tone and characters remind me of Joan Bauer. I would recommend this book for elementary school readers and fans of Joan Bauer. I would read more Josephine Cameron in the future.

Special thanks to NetGalley for my complimentary copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

I completely fell in love with this cover - it is AMAZING and I love it.

The text within is also really good. I loved all the characters and the story. It struck a good note between plot and character development across the board. It was funny and sweet and written at, what I think, is a great level for middle grade readers who want something a little fun, a little serious, and easy to read.

You can read the official plot but it's about an 11 year old girl who doesn't have any friends and really wants some and her mom who is having job problems who go to a resort her mom went to as a kid for the summer. So it has some elements of camp (even though they're not at camp) and making friendships and a lake and water sports and extra-curriculars (rock collecting! cleaning! selling beauty products! a spectacular show!)

I loved Charlotte Boulay and DJ the absolute most as characters. They both had the best parts because they were eminently ALWAYS already themselves. They didn't try to pretend to be anyone different ever for anything and I appreciate that in role models.

The story, as I said, was good and had a nice plot that kept along at a steady clip while also having time for the main character to have thoughts and develop as a person. Nice life lessons on friendships and what being a friend actually means.

Definitely recommend to ages 8-13 though younger audiences might prefer it read to them.