A Swirl of Ocean

May 15, 2019
In this story of a change-averse preteen, the restless interplay between moon and sea becomes a framework for exploring the uneasy intertidal zone between childhood and adult maturity. Ten years ago her adoptive mother, Lindy, found Summer, now 12, alone on the beach. Their tight bond is tested when Lindy invites her boyfriend to move into their oceanfront home, causing Summer to passively resist the new normal. A reckless, solo swim triggers Summer's vivid dream about a strange girl: Tink, another out-of-sorts adolescent. Observing grown-up thrills and heartaches from the child side of the divide, Tink feels abandoned by her older sister and disgusted at how her friends have coupled up. When a second dream follows a kayak spill, Summer recognizes that seawater prompts them and actively seeks them. Like Tink, she feels pushed out. Heightening Summer's dislocation is the desire to know her own story--who left her on the beach? Why? The discovery that her detailed dreams reflect actual places and events prompts her to seek more. Awkwardly straddling fantasy and realism, plot twists don't always persuade. How adoptees relate to their origins merits more thoughtful treatment. However, Summer and Tink are compelling, the unsettling surges of adolescence tugging at each enhanced by the evocative ocean setting and imagery. Characters default to white. How preteen girls negotiate this supremely trying life passage is explored in some of the year's best middle-grade releases; add this to the list. (Fiction. 8-12)

COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

June 24, 2019
Sarno (Just Under the Clouds) packs this deeply affecting novel with honest emotion. Propelled by authentic characters, the adroitly woven plot meshes past and present, dreams and reality, and love and friendship. Set in a seaside resort town where only the year-rounders remain as fall approaches, the story is narrated by 12-year-old Summer, whose adoptive mother, Lindy, found her alone at water’s edge a decade earlier, wearing a shell necklace. The ocean itself becomes a compelling character, at once calming and menacing, leaving shells on the beach that Summer vigilantly collects, yet abruptly catching her in a riptide. A keeper of long-held secrets, the sea also inspires Summer’s unsettlingly realistic dreams, told in installments and starring a girl called Tink (and always ending “with me inside the ocean. With the ocean inside me”), which she hopes hold a clue to her identity. Like the adolescents in her dreams, Summer grapples with disconcerting changes, including Lindy’s new live-in beau, who upsets the familial status quo. Though the exploration of Lindy’s provenance through dreams sometimes fails to land, the volume remains an involving, bracing summer tale for all seasons. Ages 8–12. Agent: Rebecca Stead, the Book Group.