Customer Reviews

Olive's Ocean (Newbery Honor Book)

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(38)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Olive's Ocean is by Kevin Henkes (of Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse fame). When I read the recommendation in Booklist for this Newbery Honor book, I decided to order it for our school's library. Renaissance Learning identified it as a 4.7 reading level. This seemed to be a book that would appeal to our fourth and fifth graders. I thought that Kevin Henkes would create a novel that would appeal as much to our older students as his his picture books appeal to our younger students.

Please be aware that this book has quite a bit of profanity. It also has many sexual references. These two bits of information are not included in the reviews. Olive's Ocean is really more appropriate for students in middle or high school. I would not have purchased it for our elementary students had I been aware of this.

Twelve-year-old Olive Barstow has died in a car accident. No one in the neighborhood knew her, and none of the kids at school remember much about her except that she was a little weird. But thoughts of Olive haunt Martha, and she has a hard time thinking of anything but the death of this unknown classmate, a girl her own age with hauntingly similar aspirations.

For young adult readers, this book is a powerful look at the affirmation of life and the mysteries of death. Olive is completely unknown to us, yet thoughts about what her life could have been permeate the thoughts, movements, and actions of our protagonist.

This is a clever look at how the life of another can add dimension to our own existence. Family relationships are written candidly and realistically. It's impossible not to love Martha from the beginning of the story when she wishes a good morning to her two-year-old sister until the end of the book when she resolves to be the person she wants to be.

This book is a far cry from Kevin Henkes picture books about little mice, yet it carries the same beautiful messages about life and family and friends.

As a fan of Kevin Henkes' picture books, I was eager to read this novel. It didn't disappoint. The sensitivity that peeks out from behind the whimsy in Henkes' picture books is given a chance to shine in Olive's Ocean.

Just before leaving on her family's annual summer trip to Cape Cod, 12-year-old Martha receives a strange gift -- a page from the journal of a dead classmate she hardly knew. Upon reading the dead girl's words, Martha becomes haunted by the knowledge that she and this girl were so much alike, they could have been friends. She's determined to do right by Olive, who was friendless in life, and she's determined to find herself in the process as well.

Martha achieves both goals, not without a few stumbles and setbacks along the way. Martha has a lot to think about -- boys, her aging grandmother, her father's obvious unhappiness with his chosen occupation (writing) and her excitement and uncertainty over her own chosen occupation (writing!).

There is a certain epiphany about three-quarters of the way through the book that I feel comes too fast and too easily, but it's forgiveable because the rest of the book rings so true.

This book reminded me of a sort of "beginner" version of one of my favorite books in the world -- "A Ring of Endless Light" by Madeleine L'Engel. "Olive's Ocean" is great for 10-year-olds and maybe even some eight-year-olds, whereas I'd give "A Ring of Endless Light" to kids ages 12 and up, and maybe a few astute 10-year-olds.

It's wonderful to see another side of Kevin Henkes. There was already no doubt that he and his colorful books are here to stay, but this piece in a more muted palette is beautiful as well.

"Olive's Ocean" is a story of self -discovery and personal changes wrought by tragedy. The main character, twelve-year-old Martha Boyle, begins her journey when her classmate Olive dies suddenly as the result of a bicycle accident. Until Olive's mother shows up at Martha's doorstep with Olive's journal page, Martha doesn't realize what an impact she had on her classmate's short, lonely life. This realization makes Martha think about her past, present, and most importantly, her future. During summer vacation at her Grandmother's ocean-side home, Martha learns a lot about life, death, love, and family.

This book is beautifully written in a very conversational style that makes the reader feel like he or she is seeing the world through the eyes of a twelve-year old girl. The pages are full of vivid images that will stay with you long after reading the book. As the story unfolds there are times of great joy, sadness, and confusion. This book will definitely cause self-reflection. My only caution about sharing this book with the recommended age level of 9-12 year olds is that it contains some curse words and a few crude remarks that I felt were inappropriate for elementary readers. However, overall "Olive's Ocean" is well worth reading and would be nice for parents to share with their preteen children.

Olive's Ocean
By Kevin Henkes
"Olive Barstow was dead. She had been hit by a car on Monroe Street while riding her bike weeks ago. That was about all Martha knew."
Martha Boyle ends her school year in a disturbing way. After discovering her daughter Olive's diary, Olive's mother finds an entry that mentions Martha. Martha receives this diary entry and is quite surprised. Martha wasn't even Olive's friend. When arriving home Martha rushes to her room to read it. The diary entry tells about Olive's hopes including wanting to become Martha's friend, that "[Martha] is the nicest person in my whole entire class"
Martha is going to the beach that summer to visit her grandmother Godbee. Her grandmother lives on the beachfront. Martha learns, from the entry that Olive wished to but never lived by the ocean. This makes things much worse for Martha.
As the story unfolds, Martha's word is turned upside-down. Always haunted by Olive, she starts to like a person she used to hate and is faced with the troubling fact that Godbee my soon die.
Henkes writes this story beautifully, making serious concepts seem friendly to children. The second you end it you will you will turn back to the first chapter for more.

Olive's Ocean is one of the best books I have ever read. I could relate to it very well. It's about a girl named Martha who goes to New England to spend time with her Godbee (grandmother). While she's there, she starts crushing on Jimmy Manning, but realizes that he doesn't really care about other people's feelings, just his camera. She's also trying to spend as much time with her Godbee as she can, because she knows that this may be the last summer she has with her. When all of this is happening, she is also learning to cope with the loss of a girl who went to her school, but was killed when she was hit by a car. Martha has a hard time getting her hands around the whole situation.
One of the characters in the book is Martha, she's the main character. She's dealing with the hardships, and good times of growing up. There's also Godbee. Martha loves Godbee, and learns a lot from her. She really enjoys spending time with her. Godbee is a very peaceful kind of a person, who loves life and loves being near the ocean. She also enjoys spending time with her family. Then there's Jimmy Manning. Jimmy Manning is the boy that Martha had the crush on in the beginning of the book, but definitely not in the second half of the book. He's making a movie, and uses Martha in it, Martha realizes that he's only using her in the movie though. There's also Tate, Tate is Jimmy Manning's younger brother. Tate is Martha's age, and can sometimes be a little jealous of Jimmy Manning.
I would definitely recommend this book because you can really relate to all the characters in the book, and it teaches you about life and how you should be happy for what you have. You also realize what it's like to be a teenager and what one has to go through. I liked it because I could relate to it. Every summer around the fourth of July my grandparents get a cottage on the ocean, we all go out there to the beach and hang out. After that, we go to the farm where all my relatives are. We all have a lot of fun and enjoy spending time together. This reminds me a lot of when Martha goes and visits Godbee. There were lots of surprises with what happened with Jimmy Manning and staying at the ocean that surprised me. I enjoyed reading about them. I also liked the style of writing, it was very easy to understand at my age and it flowed very easily which I liked. I think that girls would enjoy this book more because it's from their point of view, and girls would understand Martha more I think. It's a very good realistic fiction book, which is my favorite genre so I also enjoyed that. I would definitely recommend it.

Olive Barstow was the kind of quiet kid who blended into the woodwork. When she died unexpectedly, her mother brought over a diary page to Martha, the protagonist. Stunned by Olive's writing that she wished they could have been friends, and guilty over not knowing of this during her life, Martha decides to try writing a novel as her family spends a summer at the beach. Her relationships with the boys next door, her grandmother whose house they are staying at, and her family are unexpectedly described in more thoughtful detail than the average young adult book. Not since the Anastasia Krupnik books, have I read such a three-dimensional portrait of a senior citizen.

Martha, on the cusp of puberty, finds her relationship to the two boys next door has changed. Every exchange between them feels genuine and what ultimately happens is what would happen in real life, not a glossy teen movie. In the end, she makes little progress on her novel, but discovers much about herself, helped by both adults and peers.

Lovely, lovely story. The weight of the world rests on Martha's shoulders, and being twelve, why wouldn't it? There are distancing family members, beloved grandmothers, intriguing boys, annoying parents, squealing siblings and always the ocean.

Read it in one night (not hard to do, chapters are very short and great for reading to classes......) and page count is about 220, small volume (pages).

OH, I cannot recommend this more. It's just wonderful! The only thing that would have made it better, would be to have access to the ocean while reading!

Like many here, I too have been a fan of Kevin Henkes's picture books, such as "Lilly's Big Day." Until I spotted his last name in the juvenile fiction section while working at the library, though, I had no idea he had written any books aimed at older readers. I immediately checked this book out and wasn't disappointed.

"Olive's Ocean" is the story of a girl named Martha who spends a summer at her grandmother's with her family. She learns of a disturbing secret --- it would seem that her grandmother may not have much time to live. This is a sensitive issue for Martha --- she's recently been affected by the death of Olive --- a girl who she didn't know well, but wrote a journal entry that ends up Martha's possession starting that she wanted to get know her --- "the nicest girl in the class."

Martha is also undergoing some other struggles. She wants to be a writer, but is worried because her Dad wants to be one too. And she's sorting out her developing feelings about boys and other such topics.


"Olive's Ocean" was a pleasantly deep and moving story. It has an interesting and surprising ocean. This book has a lot of deep thoughts and is laid out in a special and unique style. Each "Chapter" is generally only from one-to-four pages long. I quickly settled into this style and raced through the engrossing narrative.


"Olive's Ocean" deserves its Newbery Honor. This is a thoughtful story with a strong heroine and richly developed characters that are very true to life.

I just finished "Olive's Ocean" a few days ago. It's a sad book about a girl named Martha who spends her summer with her family at her grandmother's after finding out that a girl in her class died. She never really knew the girl, because she was shy and new in her class. Her rather odd mother brought her a page of Olive's journal because on it her daughter wrote that she hoped to get to know Martha that summer because she seemed like one of the nicest people she'd ever met. Olive haunts Martha as she discovers that her grandmother isn't immortal, boys can bring you joy and heartbreak, and that people you don't even notice may care for you most. This is a journey of discovery as Olive deals with the problems within her family, while battling with her decision to become a writer. The writing stlye is VERY simplistic though. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I was a bit younger. It was a REALLY quick read. I would have liked it if the chapter's were a bit longer too. Check this one out from the library. It's good, but not good enough to buy...