Mermaid Vera and octo-kid Beaker are back in the third volume of this early reader series from Newbery honoree and Stonewall Award winner Kyle Lukoff! In their undersea town of Tidal Grove, they meet a new friend (a mantis shrimp) with a helpful skill, help the shrimp find its way back to its family, and figure out how to find a game that all of them can play together. These gentle adventures are full of humor, tidbits of undersea facts (provided by Vera and Beaker’s frog-legged teacher, Mr. Burbles), and light messages about friendship across difference, being helpful, and more. Kat Uno’s illustrations are colorful and charming.
Beaker uses they/them pronouns, although this is not part of the plot (and is in fact not even mentioned in this volume). Both Vera and Beaker read as Asian; other characters read as Black and White.
