From School Library Journal
Starred Review. Grade 6-8–Lise, 12, is beginning to feel at home in a new town with her single mother and 5-year-old brother, a selective mute. When her mother is injured in a car accident and faces months of rehabilitation, she decides to recover in Maine, where she grew up. Lise is shocked and resentful when they arrive at Fiddle Beach and she sees their tiny rented house. And she finds that the immense, uncontrollable, and endless ocean terrifies her. She is so caught up in her own feelings that she never really acknowledges the pain and frustration her mother is experiencing, and is even somewhat jealous of the former boyfriend who enters her mother's life. But when she meets Ben, an elderly Passamaquoddy Indian who lives in the last house on the beach, Lise finds that she can tell him about her fear and the changes in her life. Ben talks to her about knowing when to fight for what is important and when to accept change. Lise doesn't quite understand until Hurricane Fern hits and she almost loses her life while trying in vain to rescue the old man. Struggling in the water, she hears a small, clear voice calling her name–it is her brother's. Jones gets right to the heart of the matter in this captivating and touching first novel. Lise is by turns irritating, humorous, and compelling, but always believable. A first-rate debut.
–Terrie Dorio, Santa Monica Public Library, CA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
*Starred Review* Gr. 5-8. Annalise, 12, and her brother, Free, 5, have never been to the ocean before their single-parent, working mom is injured in a car accident and takes them back to her childhood home in Fiddle Island, Maine, to recover. Annalise hates the sea, the sound, the space, the fury--but when a hurricane hits, she braves the waves to rescue an old Abenaki man, Ben, who has become her friend. The drama in Annalise's smart, tough, first-person narrative is understated; the spaces between the words are as eloquent as what is said about the wildness of the setting and about the human secrets. The local doctor, Michael, Mom's former boyfriend, helps Mom and loves the kids, but he is a bit too perfect, as is wise Ben. The family story, however, is exquisitely told, especially Annalise's problems with the move and her close, loving bond with her brother, Free. Free is smart, alert, and happy, though he never speaks, and Mom accepts his selective mutism. She knows he will speak when he is ready--and in a heartrending climax, when the hurricane threatens his sister's life, he does.
Hazel RochmanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
