Mermaid Books 8 – Little Obelia

I picked this up for $3 from one of those pop-up bookshops in my local mall yesterday. You know the ones I mean... three display stands stacked high with nothing over $5.  

Little Obelia is an adaptation from the classic Australian illustrated book for children by May Gibbs – Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. The imprint page credits the  "coloured reproductions and adaptations of original illustrations by May Gibbs" but that the words are by N Georgeson. The publisher is Murray David Publishing. There are seven separate copyrights on the imprint page. 

The story and rhyme is a little bit all over the place but the images are quite charming for an underwaterphile. There are leafy sea dragon drawn shell carriages, Ragged Blossom slumbering on a shell bed, and Little Obelia, the Princess of the Sea, standing amongst her pearls like a baby Botticelli Venus.

The book is currently out of stock at Amazon and at the publisher but we've included the links just in case the situation changes. It's not strictly a mermaid story because we don't see any tailed humans or gumnut characters, but it will find a loving place in my mermaid / fairy book collection probably near Peg's Fairy Book.