Book Recommendation: Julian is a Mermaid by Jessica Love.

Julian is a boy who lives in New York with his nanna, who he sometimes calls abuela (grandmother in Spanish, as all you Dora fans know). While Julian was on the train with his grandmother, he sees three beautiful ladies dressed up as mermaids. 

Julian loves mermaids, and like all kids do when the train starts rocking, he starts to daydream, imagining himself changing into a mermaid, swimming under the sea and meeting all sorts of wonderful sea creatures.

As they get to their stop, Julian and abuela get off the train. The mermaids wave goodbye to Julian. As they get home, Julian tells his nanna that he is a mermaid too. Nanna says nothing but goes to have a bath. While grandma is relaxing in the bath, Julian goes into her things and becomes a mermaid. 

Nanna comes out of the bathroom, and stares at Julian.

At this point there is tension, the reader does not know what nanna will do…will she freak out? Will she stop talking to Julian? But abuela puts on a beautiful blue dress, gives Julian a string of pearls and takes him to the Annual Mermaid Parade (a real event that happens in Brooklyn, NY)

There are only around ten sentences in this book. The illustrations speak for themselves. They convey a very emotional message. I cried on my first read. 

So many Julians, yet so few abuelas. 

This book teaches acceptance, love and self-love, being who you want to be, even if it’s a mermaid. It teaches children to love who they are, challenging gender stereotypes along the way. Boys can be boys and be mermaids too. That’s ok. Unlike other stories the boy does not have to face criticism or bullying for his choice of play. There is no bullying involved in this story.

 I would dare to think that Julian goes to a good school where bullies are the ones going to counselling and therapy, not the children who choose different toys from the majority. 

This story teaches us how things should be. 

Comfortable in our own skin, comfortable with the skin of those we love, and all those around us. 

I highly recommend this book to anybody raising children, mermaids and unicorns. There is a lot adults can learn from a children’s book, and this is one of those books.

For Children aged 3-99.

Why you should play more with LEGO.

a) When you play with small bricks, you are training the little muscles in your fingers and hands. This is called your fine motor control. Having good fine motor control makes your colouring and your handwriting better.

b) Let your imagination run loose with your friends. When you build your houses, castles, volcanos, ancient temples, garages, ships, you are making up stories in your head, you become the creator. You will learn how to play with others, to collaborate and make something together. It is very much like writing a story with a good friend. Or maybe another boy or girl who will become your good friend. How good is that? 

c) That feeling you get when you finish a piece. The feeling of ‘YAY, I made this!’ A very happy feeling that makes you feel good about yourself.

d) Playing with LEGO teaches you resilience. You have to have patience, you need to look for the right brick, and you will make mistakes, so you will go back and fix that little error.

e) You develop a skill for problem solving. A mass of differently coloured and differently shaped bricks turn into an object or an animal. Making sense of a chaos of coloured bricks is like solving a puzzle.

f) LEGO keeps you calmer. Just like when you play Jenga, you need to have calm hands so that none of the bricks get lost.

f) STEAM. Science, technology, engineering, art, mathematics. You have it all in one special box.

Next time you write that letter to Santa, make sure you include the best four letter word there is: LEGO. 

Until then, you can come up to our class and take part in LEGO club.