Review: When Sea Becomes Sky

By Gillian McDunn

New York: Bloomsbury Children's Books, 2023. Fiction. 214 pgs.

11-year-old Bex dreams of someday becoming a writer, but she hasn't been able to do much writing this summer -- the words just won't flow from her pencil. Instead, she spends her time exploring the marshes near her coastal Carolina home with her younger brother Davey. When a drought brings lower water levels to one of their favorite spots, Bex and Davey discover an enigmatic statue embedded in the mud. The discovery can't come at a better time, as Bex overhears a developer planning to build a highway through the marsh -- she is confident that solving the mystery of this statue is key to saving the marsh and their home of Pelican Island.

Gillian McDunn is great at writing books with interesting characters and great settings, she shines again with this book. Bex's first-person narrative creates a familiarity and intimacy with the kids in the book, and you feel like you are on the beach with Davey and bex. This heartfelt, summertime mystery is a great read for kids on summer break. A plot twist part way through, that challenges Bex's assertion that "writers must tell the truth thoroughly, constantly, and recklessly," will give readers lots to think and talk about.

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