Disney’s Storytime Treasures Library is a charming collection of 18
picture books featuring characters from different Disney movies. The
seventh volume, Treasures of Old, focuses on Ariel, the headstrong daughter of undersea monarch King Triton. Little Mermaid
tie-in books are interesting because they are almost always prequels;
after all, if they were sequels, Ariel wouldn’t be a little mermaid
anymore. Presumably, this book is meant to take place around the time of
the mid-1990s television series.
Lisa Ann Marsoli wrote several
of the books in this series, and I’ve come to discover that she is very
focused on the theme of friendship, particularly on characters
transcending their differences to forge some sort of bond. She repeats
the basic storyline in multiple books, which slightly lessens its
impact; while I tend to love stories of this type, she doesn’t vary the
plot that much from book to book. Considering that the intention is for
children to read all of the books in the series, I see this as a
weakness since the similarities might bore young readers, and this
particular book isn’t quite as well-constructed as others following the
same basic pattern.
King Triton is worried because another
merking is coming to visit and wants to meet his daughters. He leaves
Sebastian the task of giving his daughters a crash course in the social
graces, particularly hoping that Ariel will be on her best behavior. For
one thing, Triton acts as though he has never before held a banquet for
a dignitary. This strikes me as pretty implausible. Ariel doesn’t look
significantly younger than she does in the movie, so she’s probably
about 15. Has Triton just been a complete recluse all these years?
I
also find it rather bothersome that the beginning of the story seems to
make a big deal about the fact that Sebastian is the court composer and
that he is planning a musical surprise for Triton and his guest, yet
when the big day actually arrives, the book makes no mention of it at
all. Why bring it up only to ignore it later on? Then there is also the
strange format of the poem in the back of the book, which departs from
the usual ABCBDEFE format by rhyming the first and fourth lines instead
of the second and fourth. It really doesn’t work for the format.
This
is a fairly cute story that warns against judging people before you’ve
met them. While part of the issue throughout the story is Ariel’s
fidgety nature, which makes it hard for her to concentrate on etiquette
lessons, the underlying problem is that she is certain the banquet will
be boring and that she and her father’s guest will have nothing in
common, which turns out not to be true at all.
The book doesn’t
really take Ariel to task for her disobedience or lack of punctuality;
the focus instead is on the joy of unexpected connections. Ariel’s
actions, frustrating as they sometimes are, seem true to character. This
book really doesn’t show her at her best, but she eventually takes the
trouble to be gracious. The writing is pretty simple, with a paragraph
or two on most pages and few words that would pose any problems for
early readers. The illustrations are vibrant, effectively capturing the
beauty of the undersea kingdom and the personalities of the characters.
The only character who seems a bit off is King Mariner, who looks
distractingly similar to Triton but with darker hair. It might have been
a good idea to make him look a little more distinct.
While Treasures of Old
uses beloved characters to demonstrate the fact that a generation gap
can be bridged with a bit of effort, the story doesn’t come across as
well as it could, so I only mildly recommend it. There are greater
treasures to be found in this Disney library.
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