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mermaid reading

Educational Books for Kids by Nina Leipold

Books that inspire change through Imagination

Sammy the Sand Dollar

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Sammy is a sand dollar who loves to go on adventures with his friends, Stu the starfish, and Lily the dolphin. One day, their adventure takes them too close to shore and Sammy is put in danger when a person takes him out of the water. How can Stu and Lily save their friend when they can’t leave the ocean’s safety? 

 Luckily, a child on the beach sees what happens and takes action to return Sammy to where he belongs: in the water. 

 

Sammy the Sand Dollar teaches children basic language skills while informing them about aquatic wildlife. Kids will love going on an adventure with Sammy and his friends, and they’ll learn the importance of respecting nature and all of it’s animals. 

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sammy the sand dollar

Mermaid of Hilton Head

 

The Mermaid of Hilton Head was Mermaid Nina's second children's book. It was written and illustrated by her when she was evacuated from the island by Hurricane Mathew. 

 

Mermaid books for kidsThe Mermaid of Hilton Head hardcover children's book is a fun and educational book that will keep your kids wanting more.

 

The Mermaid of Hilton Head takes children on an aquatic adventure while teaching them about nature conservation. Kids will love getting to know the Mermaid of Hilton Head and they'll be thrilled to know that a simple action can help save the island's sea turtles. 

mermaid of hilton head book

The Mermaid’s Friends

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The Mermaid's Friends hardcover children's book is a fun and educational book that will keep your kids wanting more.

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Mermaid Nina and her friends fight against dolphin capture and show that a simple action can help change the lives of other captive dolphins. With her friends, Lily, Pinky Plankton, Tony the Human, Captain Rick, and Sammy the Sand Dollar, Mermaid Nina fights off Professor Al G. 

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Based on the real-life story about Mermaid Nina, Lily, and the award winning Mermaid Encounter Boat Tour at Hilton Head Harbor Marina.

the mermaids friends

A Christmas Coral

 

The Mermaid of Hilton Head is at it again in A Christmas Coral, and this time, she has a famous, jolly man along for the ride!

 

Mermaid Nina is swimming along one day when she notices that the coral on the ocean floor is turning white. She sets off to investigate what could be causing this. Her Christmas wish is for the oceans to have healthy coral again.

 

Santa Claus and his lead elves, Noel Narwhal and Merry Mackerel, will not let anything stop them from making Nina’s Christmas wish come true! Will they be able to perform a Christmas miracle?

A Christmas Coral Cover

Dolphin Adventures

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The Mermaid of Hilton Head is back for another adventure!  This time, she's on a quest to save the area's dolphins from becoming injured by boats' propellers when boaters try to feed the beautiful creatures.  But how can she find a trustworthy human to help her?

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Thankfully, Captain Rick enters the scene, assisting Mermaid Nina in educating boaters so her dolphin friends are kept safe and happy. 

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Dolphin Adventures teaches children that while it's fun to see dolphins up close, it's not good for them to eat human food - or for them to get so close to boats. Kids will love going on another mission with Mermaid Nina, and they'll learn about being responsible wildlife advocates along the way. 

dolphin-adventures.jpg

The Journey of Jiggles

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Jiggles the hermit crab loves to explore around his grotto, until one day he wanders off too far and finds himself in the hands of a human.  Follow him on his journey to make a new life for himself, including new friends, and becoming part of a family again!

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The Journey of Jiggles is based on a true store about a hermit crab rescue, recovery and discovery of a new life with new adventures. 

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The Journey of Jiggles teaches children basic language skills while informing them about important ocean conservation issues.  Kids will love going on an adventure with Jiggles and his friends, and they'll learn the importance of respecting nature and all of its animals. 

journey of jiggles

Mermaid Coloring Book 

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With the Mermaid Coloring Book you go on a quest under the sea to help Mermaid Nina find all of the plastic straws in the ocean!

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Saving sea life has never been more fun and colorful with this coloring book. 

mermaid coloring book

Nina's Necklace

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The Mermaid of Hilton Head is back for another adventure! This time, she is on a mission to help her shark friends become less feared by humans which is putting their safety at risk. But how can she possibly help the humans to understand that sharks aren’t monsters?


Luckily, with the help of some mermaid magic, and her octopus friend, Icarus, she is able to come up with a plan to help!
Kids will love going on another quest with Mermaid Nina, and they will learn about bei
ng responsible wildlife advocates along the way.

Nina's Necklace Children's Book

Flounder Cat

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Flounder the purrmaid loves to swim in the ocean and play on the beaches until one day, she meets a friend who needs her help. Follow her on her journey to help her friend and others as she comes up with a plan so all of her sea life friends will have a safe future!

 

Flounder Cat  highlights the very real issue of plastic pollution in our oceans and introduces a way we can all help.

 

Flounder Cat teaches children basic language skills while informing them about important ocean conservation issues. Kids will love going on an adventure with Flounder the Purrmaid, and they’ll learn the importance of respecting nature and all of its animals.

Flounder Cat Cover

Mermaid Nina started writing and illustrating children’s books to educate children who are young readers and adults alike about how to respect nature and all of its animals as well as teach them what changes they can make to help her ocean friends. 

 

Young readers will not only become more educated about our oceans, issues facing our issues, and solutions to prevent long-term damage to our oceans, but they will also have a restored sense of empowerment and inspiration that they can make a difference and that their actions really do matter. 

 

Young readers will fall in love with delightful characters such as Sammy the Sand Dollar, Pinky Plankton, Sailor Scruffy, and Puff Puff the pufferfish. All of Mermaid Nina’s books are fun to read aloud, to read to yourself, or even to experience in real life on one of our experiences. 

 

Young readers will love going through the illustrated picture books and experiencing our unique fairy tale in a way that will leave them inspired to make a difference for our oceans.

 

Our educational books are a little bit different than the classic Dr. Seuss books. Each of our books has an important message about ocean conservation leaving kids empowered at the end to make a change. These are ideas and solutions you can touch and feel and bring to life in your own reality.

 

These books offer suggestions of things you can change in your day to day life, small changes, that will impact the planet tremendously with the impacts on your life remaining merely unfelt. This is the key to making changes. Long term solutions are lifestyle changes and these solutions have been heavily researched and are now being presented in a way that young readers can embrace them in our educational children’s books. 

 

Not every book for kids offers such a message that encourages kids to feel powerful once they’re done reading it. The world is literally in their hands and these educational books teach them how to treat it to help secure the planet’s future for them and even for their own children some day.

 

Some of the topics covered, adults do not even consider to be common sense media has covered topics similar to this in the past, however rarely are solutions provided. Some of the topics include  but are not limited to: responsible beach combing, dolphin captivity, coral bleaching, and how light pollution impacts our sea turtle population. 

 

These topics might seem advanced, but when combined with a fairy tale, charismatic characters, and colorful illustrations, children retain a lot of what they learn and also grasp the concepts provided.

 

The solutions provided to young readers to tackle these issues are simple, yet powerful, keeping in mind that these are long term solutions that have minimal impact on our lives yet a powerful impact on the planet’s future. This allows young readers to feel empowered and understand that they are able to make a difference in this world, and comprehend that their actions matter just as much as the grown up’s actions around them matter. 

 

Solutions such as switching to reef-friendly sunscreen, leaving living sand dollars on the beach, and not buying a ticket to any captive dolphin facilities are just a few examples of actions young readers can take to make a difference and feel empowered

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These books are also great for young readers who are just learning how to read, with a focus on learning new vocabulary, and grammar. The illustrations also help those who aren’t able to read, understand what is happening. A few basic scientific words are introduced as well giving your young reader a one-up on other young readers of the same age. 

 

Here at Mermaid of Hilton Head, our focus is making learning fun and that’s what we do through all of our products and services, and our books are not an exception. These books are so imaginative, yet still maintain a sense of reality, and young readers don’t even know they are learning. 

 

Once finished reading our books, we have been told by many parents that kids want to re-read them over and over. We have also been told that our young readers are excited about what they have learned and take steps to implement their newly learned material almost immediately. 

 

If your young reader is inspired by what he or she read in one of the books, you can also bring these books to life by booking our Mermaid Encounter Boat Tour. This tour is based on the book The Mermaid’s Friends but you can also find characters on this tour from other books such as Sammy the Sand Dollar. 

 

On all of our boat tours, including our Dolphin Experience Boat Tour and Sunset Cruise, you can find our dolphin characters, many named in the books. Our local dolphins are known by our tour guides and will often introduce them to you by name, then you can see if you can find them in one (or more) of our books. 

 

Nothing makes a fairy tale more magical than bringing it to life. Young readers get the opportunity to touch and feel the boat in the book, meet and greet characters who have been brought to life, and become heroes in the story they’ve been reading for the past few weeks, months, or days. This experience is something with which a read aloud just can’t top. 

 

If you are looking to purchase one of these educational books for kids as a gift, but aren’t sure which one to choose, we also offer gift cards for book purchases to lighten the stress of making the right decision for your young reader. 

If you are looking to purchase tickets to the Mermaid Encounter Boat Tour, the corresponding children’s book can be purchased as an add-on when you book the tour online. Gift cards are also available for the tour. This is truly the best gift a young reader could ever imagine. 

 

The children’s books along with the real life experiences that bring the fairy tale truly create an unforgettable experience that our young readers talk about months and even years afterwards. It is an experience of a lifetime that leaves lasting inspiration in not only our young readers, but also their parents and even their grand parents. 

 

“We thought the books were fun to read aloud, then we went on the tour, and Ava (our daughter) is still talking about the experience (4 months later). She learned so much and now the book means even more to her. She asks us to read it every night before bed.” This was one family’s testimony after they felt so enamored by the book and then the tour, they just had to reach out to let us know about their experience. 

 

Another family reached out to let us know that their son (who was 5 years old at the time) was educating his friends about what he had learned, and even implementing new ideas in his own home. Stories like this, from guests, are not hard to come by. There are many stories much like this that let us know our educational children’s books are working, and they are powerful! 

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