Skip to main content

CHARACTER COUNTS: Beyond the Bright Sea

Image
By

Beyond the Bright Sea
By Lauren Wolk
Dutton Children's Books, 2017. Fiction

Crow has lived her whole life on a small island off the coast of Massachusetts with Osh, the man who rescued her when she washed ashore as a newborn baby, and Miss Maggie, their neighbor across the sandbar. Though she loves her little makeshift family, she's always been curious about where she came from and why her birth parents sent her away. As Crow gets older, she hears gossip around the island about Penikese Island, a former leper colony, and rumors that Crow's parents were lepers. Crow begins an adventure to investigate where she comes from and learn about what family means.

This is a truly beautifully written novel. Lauren Wolk, whose novel WOLF HOLLOW received a Newbery Honor in 2016, has a genuine ability to evoke heart and emotion in her characters. There are definitely positive similarities to make to WOLF HOLLOW, but even standing on this own this book deserves attention. Crow is a strong, determined, intuitive heroine who pursues adventure and seeks the answers to her questions. The setting is vividly described and the historical background into the 1920s is impressive. Readers will love watching Crow grow up and learn about what makes a family and what makes a person who they are. This is a great middle grade read with equal parts emotion and action and stunning text as well.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Faker

By
Faker By Gordon Korman New York: Scholastic Press, 2024. Fiction. 214 pages. 12-year-old Trey is used to starting over at a new school -- he has the routine perfectly memorized: make new friends, introduce his dad to the wealthy parents of his new friends, and "Houdini" themselves out of there before they get caught running their latest scam. Trey's dad is a master con artist, and Trey has just been promoted to full-partner. Their new scheme for the next big score brings them to the affluent suburb of Boxelder, TN where Trey's dad has cooked up a fake electric car company for investors to buy into. The only problem is that Trey is starting to grow tired of moving around and never putting down roots, especially after forming a fast friendship with Logan and developing a crush on Kaylee, a socially conscious girl in his class. As Trey longs for a normal life, is there any way he can convince his dad to get out of the family business? Gordon Korman is a perennial favorit...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Fowl Play

By
  Fowl Play By Kristin O'Donnell Tubb New York: Katherine Tegen Books, 2024. Fiction 277 pages. Still reeling from her beloved uncle's death, Chloe Alvarez is comforted and confused when at his last will and testament reading, Uncle Will gifts her his African Grey parrot, Charlie. Charlie has a robust vocabulary and loves to make Alexa requests for her favorite songs, but when she starts saying things like, "homicide," and "cyanide," Chloe becomes convinced that Uncle Will may have met his demise by murder instead of a genetic disease, as was previously thought. Ultimately, bringing in her brother, Grammy, and Uncle Frank (and of course Charlie,) Chloe's ragtag and adoring family support her search for answers ---going on stakeouts, engaging in fast pursuits, and searching for clues. But as the suspects stack up and the mystery grows, Chole will learn that the process of death and grieving is complicated, and in the end her Uncle Will's words that, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The Mythmakers

By
  The Mythmakers By John Hendrix New York: Abrams Fanfare, 2024. Informational. 217 pages.  Before C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien had ever published world-renowned literature, they were friends. This book starts with the boyhood of each author, discussing how each lost their parents and the toll that took on them. It moves on to talk about the experience of each man in the trenches of World War I, and their eventual meeting at Oxford. It further chronicles their "fellowship" through the writing of many of their notable works, as well as their eventual falling out.  This book is an interesting mix of comic and narrative nonfiction, flipping back and forth between chapters. A lion and wizard appear in the comic portions (in a nod to Aslan and Gandalf) to explain background information about mythology, the time period, and other pertinent information about the two. The author makes use of a limited color palette, using mostly greens, purples, and yellows, to draw the reader i...
Post a Comment
Read more