Whatever After 3 – Sink or Swim

Sink or Swim is book three of Sarah Mlynowski's Whatever After series, a fairy tale adventure for 8 year olds where a girl who's scared of water lands in The Little Mermaid.

What happens

Abby was meant to be flying to Chicago to see her nana. She packed three days early, swimming costume and all, because Nana's building has a hot tub. Then her mum, who's snowed under at work, puts the trip off.

Abby stomps. She sulks. She can't sleep.

Then she remembers there's a magic mirror in the basement. So she wakes her little brother Jonah, grabs the suitcase (well, it's already packed) and heads downstairs.

They step through and land in the sea.

That's a problem, because Abby is afraid of water. Not baths. Oceans, lakes, rivers, pools and even moats.

She comes up coughing and the suitcase floats away. Then a mermaid swims up, pushes a half-drowned young man towards them and vanishes.

Abby knows exactly which story this is. She also knows the old version doesn't end the way the film does. The mermaid loses her prince and dies.

Up to now, changing a fairy tale has always been an accident. This time Abby WANTS to change it.

She and Jonah argue about how. Abby thinks you make the best of what you've got, which is what her mum keeps telling her. Jonah thinks everybody should dream big.

The kingdom is great fun. It's called Mustard, everything is yellow and the king calls people dude. They even dip their brownies in mustard (Jonah, who puts ketchup on plain bread, thinks that's disgusting).

And sooner or later Abby has to get back in the water. If you've got a reader who hangs back at the edge of the pool, they might like watching someone this bossy be properly scared of something.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

Abby tells Jonah the old tale on the beach. The mermaid gives the sea witch her tongue in return for legs, and if the prince marries someone else she dies. Jonah is really upset by it.

If your reader only knows the film, that could be a shock, so you might want to get in first. One who likes knowing the REAL version will love being in on it.

What to read next

Cinderella's story came just before this one, in If the Shoe Fits. Abby turns up at a royal ball in polka-dot pyjamas and spends part of the night hiding under a stepsister's bed.