Ten-year-old Mary Margaret wants to be a mermaid. She’s been fascinated by them ever since her grandpa told her a mermaid story when she was small. So it seems perfect that she’s on a Greek cruise with her grandma, except that she wasn’t supposed to be going at all. The cruise was her grandpa and grandma’s dream vacation—until he died. Now she is traveling in his place and together she and her grandma will spread his ashes at sea. Mary Margaret isn’t sure what to feel. She knows her grandma is sad, and she’s sad, too, at least some of the time. But she is also spirited, lively, imaginative, and observant. And with someone on board like the singer Miss Victoria—who seems as if she could really be a mermaid with her shimmery, scaly dresses—there are too many possibilities to feel sad all the time. Lynn E. Hazen’s funny, tender story shines brightly, showing death and grieving as part of life, and it is firmly grounded in the perspective of a dynamic, sensitive child. (Ages 8–11)

Mary Margaret is a spunky ten-year-old girl with a tough mission. Her mother has asked her to accompany her recently widowed grandmother on a cruise to the Greek Islands. Mary Margaret wonders if she'll really be able to help her grandma get the rest, relaxation, and recuperation she needs, or if she'll just be in the way on this seniors-only cruise.

But in time Mary Margaret makes new friends, helps her grandmother say good-bye to Grandpa, and finally has a chance to fulfill her being-a-mermaid dream by joining in a beachside wedding dressed as a mermaid. Along the way she learns a little about the ancient world, a little more about herself, and a lot about delighting some grown-ups who need a little red-headed mermaid in their lives. A smart and sensitive story told through the journal entries of a very precocious mermaid-in-training.