Riptide

April 8, 2013
The few months before senior year will determine everything for 17-year-old Grace Parker. She has her sights set on staying in San Diego for college, hopefully earning a surfing scholarship, but Grace’s parents are pushing her toward Ivy League schools. Surfing is Grace’s primary escape from an abusive father and a mother who prefers to ignore her husband’s temper. Grace’s protective best friend and fellow surfer, Ford Watson, has big goals, too: dating Grace and snagging an internship at a law firm. Their relationship is further complicated when Ford starts interning for Grace’s father, who makes Ford promise to keep Grace away from the distraction of dating. Scheibe’s debut alternates between the teenagers’ dual narratives, and the story revolves around their efforts to both define their relationship and chart their futures, with the subplots involving immigration law and domestic violence adding tension. Surfing is described viscerally, including the challenges of being a female surfer (Scheibe is a longtime surfer herself), and the sport serves as a fine metaphor for building strength and identifying risks worth taking. Ages 12–up. Agent: Mandy Hubbard, D4EO Literary Agency.

April 15, 2013
This debut about a surfer girl delves into hidden child abuse and scores with strong characterizations. Seventeen-year old Grace Parker loves to surf and hang out with her best friend, Ford, who coaches her in their favorite sport. Grace yearns to win a surfing scholarship to her local school, the University of California at San Diego, but feels trapped by her parents, who push her toward the Ivy League. Her father works as a high-powered immigration attorney, the field Ford, who's half Mexican, hopes to enter. Ford lands an internship in Mr. Parker's office, thereby placing his future in the man's hands. Unbeknownst to Ford, though, Parker for many years has been bursting into sudden violence and hitting Grace, a fact denied even by Grace's stylish mom. Meanwhile, Grace and Ford each battle a strong attraction to the other, knowing that the Parkers will never approve of a romantic relationship between the two. Readers know a clash will occur, but what choices will both Grace and Ford have to make? Scheibe alternates chapters between Grace and Ford, writing each in first person. The emotions of both teens come across as realistic, and the difficulties they encounter ring true as well. The author clearly knows the surfing culture, with its lingo (there's a glossary for those who don't) and its lingering chauvinism, and she balances the suspense in both her subplots well. Solid. (Fiction. 12 & up)

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July 1, 2013

Gr 9 Up-Grace's life is like a riptide that she cannot escape. Her father is a successful lawyer who expects her to be perfect-like the image he, his wife, and his daughter present to the world. When the image slips, he abuses Grace, usually only hitting her where it cannot be seen, and rarely in front of her mother, who counters complaints with the argument that any father is better than none. Her parents expect that as valedictorian, she will go to an Ivy League school, but Grace wants to stay in California and join UC San Diego's surfing team. Only when she is in the water does she feel free of all the expectations and the weight of keeping the secret of what happens in her house from her best friend, Ford. She is also not telling him how she feels about him. Ford is caught in his own riptide-his growing feelings for Grace warring with his hard-won internship with her father and his career goal to become an immigration lawyer. Surfing is at the center of this story, told by the pair in alternating chapters. Although there is a glossary, readers unfamiliar with the sport are unlikely to stick with this uneven first novel.-Suanne B. Roush, Osceola High School, Seminole, FL

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