Longer Pitch:

THE ACCIDENTAL MERMAID is a highly illustrated, humorous early MG in which a 10-year-old girl gets accidentally turned into a mermaid, then teams up with two merkids to solve mysteries about the ocean by blending the scientific method with gumshoe detective tactics. 

Mia’s spending her summer break on a research ship with her scientist parents when she gets turned into a mermaid by a chemistry experiment gone wrong. At first, she’s annoyed—how’s she going to make an Amazing Scientific Discovery that launches her to fame if she’s stuck wearing a fishtail? She soon realizes, though, that as a mermaid, she can explore places no land-human can go, and thus her dreams of scientific superstardom are closer than ever. If she can avoid getting eaten by a shark, that is. 

She meets some merkids who introduce her to their passion (solving mysteries, detective style), and together they set out to investigate the watery world around them using both science and detective skills. Their first mystery is figuring out who’s been stealing the shells they’ve been collecting—shells they’d planned to give to hermit crabs housing themselves with bottle caps and other pieces of trash. Their investigation reveals the unique habits of a remarkable fish, and along the way, Mia learns how to think like a shark—to avoid getting eaten by one.

Creator bio:

I graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in English and film and have pursued creative jobs ever since — highlights were working as a pastry chef in the Museum of Modern Art in NYC and later, as a cake decorator in a suburb of Philly, where I now live with my husband and two kids. In my current “day job,” I’m a writer and editor for a company that publishes summaries to adult non-fiction books. 

My debut picture book, Izmelda the Fairest Dragon of Them All!, was published in 2023 by Union Square Books. I was previously represented by BookEnds Literary but parted ways after my agent left the agency (on good terms — happy to discuss details). I started drawing when my kids were young, creating nursery art for friends and family, and I’ve been developing my illustration skills since then. I’m now looking for an agent to represent my work as an author-illustrator for chapter books, illustrated middle grade, and picture books.

Main Characters:

Secondary Characters:

Synopsis

The story opens on MIA, a 10-year-old mermaid facing a shark. She tells the reader she’s only recently been turned into a mermaid, and has no idea how to deal with sharks. Another mermaid, LIZZY, shows up and rescues her. Mia then reveals her back story: She’s the daughter of two famous scientists and has been spending her summer on a research ship, where she was hoping to make a scientific discovery of her own that will launch her to fame. However, a chemistry lab mishap turned her into a mermaid. She’s disappointed that her plans to make an amazing discovery have been derailed by this, but Lizzy helps her realize that as a mermaid, she can explore places no land-human can go and can thus make a big, underwater discovery.

Mia meets Lizzy’s parents on the sunken ship where they all live, and she learns about a problem they’ve been trying to solve: Some local hermit crabs have been carrying around pieces of trash (such as bottle caps) to house themselves, instead of using shells. Lizzy’s cousins, RED and BLUE, have gone to the neighborhood playground (a coral reef beside a kelp forest) to search for shells to replace the trash pieces, and Lizzy takes Mia there, not only to help look for shells but also to ask Red, their pod’s self-appointed detective, to figure out the mystery of how to turn Mia back into a human.

Red, however, says that he can’t help with Mia’s mystery, explaining that he’s a detective of “crime mysteries,” not “science mysteries.” Lizzy points out that Red and Mia could help each other solve their respective types of mysteries if they team up and use both detective tactics and the scientific method to crack their investigations. Red and Mia agree, and decide to form a detective/scientist agency (along with Lizzy), hoping that through this partnership, they can both fulfill their dreams of becoming famous — Mia as a budding scientist and Red as the best detective in the ocean. 

They’re soon presented with a crime mystery: The shells Blue has been collecting (to help some hermit crabs who’ve been protecting themselves with bottle caps and other plastic pieces instead of shells) keep disappearing. Red and Mia, with help from Lizzy and Blue, investigate several hypotheses and theories as to where the shells have been going: They experiment to see if the current might have swept them away, and they investigate some local sea creatures as possible shell-thief suspects. After some tension when Lizzy suspects Red of manufacturing the “crime” so he can solve it and show off his detective skills, the merkids finally discover the true culprit: a white-spotted pufferfish collecting shells to decorate his mating nest. 

Soon after solving the mystery, the shark that Mia faced earlier shows up again, and Lizzy, Red, and Blue teach Mia how to manage the situation by understanding how a shark thinks. 

Finally, Mia goes back to the research ship to check in with her parents. They haven’t yet figured out how to turn her back into a human, so she returns to the water to continue living with Lizzy and her pod.