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Category:
Children
Type: Fiction
Pages: 6
At first, Sirena's unusual aquatic abilities are a source of pride and admiration. But, when she refuses to spear and eat fish like a normal Chamorro, the villagers tease and shun her. To make matters worse, talk of an evil fish spirit arises when Sirena starts tampering with the fishermen’s nets. The villagers want to banish her, but they give her one last chance at redemption. That too goes horribly wrong. As the villagers chase Sirena into the ocean, her mother calls upon their ancestors, and the spirits of the sea, to release Sirena back to where she belongs. Sirena is transformed into a mermaid and finds her freedom in becoming a daughter of the sea.
Play The Little Mermaid backwards, scrap the prince, castles and gowns and then add action, adventure, and a stubborn troublemaker who gets in touch with her inner fish spirit. Sirena is a 1200 word picture storybook, inspired by Guam’s 500-year-old oral Legend of Sirena. If Sirena were around today, she would be the founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Fish (PETF).
Excerpt
She dumped the clothes into the water. She walked on them, squashed them into the sand, shuffled and stomped on them. She had no idea how to wash clothes. She decided to make it into a dance. Sirena twirled and splashed. She lifted the wet clothes and slapped them down on the rocks.
“There!” Sirena said. She felt satisfied with her work.
She felt someone tickling her feet. Little fish were nibbling the bubbles caught in her toes.
“I can’t play with you now,” she told them. “Haven’t you gotten me into enough trouble?”
She heard the high squeals of dolphins in the bay. Sirena watched the pod leap and splash. On the beach, a sea turtle raised its head and blinked at her.
“You, too? Why does everyone want to get me into more trouble?” She tossed the damp clothing onto rocks and over bushes. “Well, maybe I can play while the clothes dry.”
Sirena abandoned the clothing and dashed across the beach into the sea, leaping and splashing, then diving into the salt water.
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