Aziza’s Secret Fairy Door and the Mermaid’s Treasure

Aziza's Secret Fairy Door and the Mermaid's Treasure by Lola Morayo is a sparkly seaside adventure for 6 year olds, with a real mermaid and a monster made of beach toys.

What happens

It's pouring with rain and Aziza's family are packing for a camping holiday. Then she spots a trail of sand and tiny seashells leading across her bedroom to the secret fairy door. (Time moves faster in Shimmerton, so she'll be back before Dad has even got the tent in the car.)

On the other side, Shimmerton's beach is having a party. There's a phoenix running the barbecue, pixies arguing over deckchairs, and a mermaid called Sirena skimming stones with Aziza's friends Peri and Tiko. Sirena has the most amazing stories about treasure hunts and sneezing sharks.

Then the ground starts to shake. The naughty Gigglers have dug their sandcastle hole too deep and woken a shell-walker. It pulls everything on the beach towards it, from ice lollies to a whole picnic basket, and the more it grabs, the bigger it grows.

The only thing that might help is a magic conch shell somewhere deep in the ocean. So Sirena turns Aziza and Peri into mermaids (Aziza keeps her butterfly wings too!) and Tiko shape-shifts into... an anglerfish. He insists it was on purpose.

It's gentle and funny, and there's a lovely thread running through it about Aziza feeling not quite good enough next to someone who seems brilliant at everything. Who hasn't felt a bit wobbly next to the new girl who can do it all? There's a riddle to solve too, and Aziza is the one who cracks it.

This is the fourth Aziza book. If your reader loves fairies, mermaids and friends who stick together, they'll be very happy in Shimmerton.

What to read next

If this is your reader's first trip through the door, the place to start is the first Aziza story, where a mysterious fairy door arrives in the post on her birthday with no stamps and no note.