Walk Across the Sea [Hardcover]

Susan Fletcher (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2001

The first time Eliza sees Wah Chung, he is squatting beside some rocks on the pathway to her island. Eliza's island is the one on which the lighthouse -- operated and maintained by her father -- stands, sending its beacon of safety to ships at sea. The pathway to the island is a treacherous one, engulfed by water when the tide is high, passable only when the tide is low and reveals the secret life of the sea on the rocks and in the pools that remain.

Although Eliza is careful to avoid Wah Chung as he paints among the rocks (after all, he is a Chinaman), when a "sneaker wave" approaches the passage, it is Wah Chung who warns her and then rescues Eliza's goat, Parthenia, before both are swept away.

It is a simple act of kindness, but one that causes Eliza to doubt many things. Are the Celestials, as the Chinese immigrants are called, such a threat to their small town? Are they really heathens, as her father claims? And what should she do when the townspeople conspire to expel these people forcibly? How will Eliza act, in the face of her father's strong beliefs and his duties as the lighthouse keeper, when Wah Chung comes to her for help in return?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Truth is a powerful thing. Sometimes it purely cries out to be told," muses 15-year-old Eliza Jane McCully, the narrator of Fletcher's (Shadow Spinner) eye-opening tale set in the late 1880s, when Chinese immigrant workers were expelled from Crescent City, Calif. The heroine lives with her parents in a lighthouse, where she appreciates the natural world around her and embraces the responsibilities she shares in caring for the beacon. When a boy named Wah Chung saves Eliza Jane from a wave, she's forced to examine the prejudice that her father and others voice toward the Chinese ("They're heathens, Eliza Jane. They contaminate us all just by being near," says her father) and decide the truth for herself. Her discussions with Dr. Wilton (her mother's doctor) on religious matters are especially illuminating. However, the Chinese characters remain two-dimensional; readers will likely come away with no greater appreciation of the depth of the Chinese culture or their struggle to assimilate. But other challenges arise that may well strike a resonant chord with readers, including Mrs. McCully's miscarriage, Eliza Jane's run-in with school bullies and growing estrangement from her father. In a bittersweet ending, the heroine finds her voice and the power that resides in telling the truth, but her bravery is not without consequences (her family is evicted for harboring Wah Chung during a storm). This spirited heroine's wryly humorous voice emerges as the novel's greatest strength. Ages 10-14.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Gr 5-9-Eliza Jane McCully's father maintains a lighthouse perched on a picturesque island along the coast of northern California in 1886. Twice a day, the tide withdraws, leaving a rocky isthmus between the island and the mainland. The 13-year-old loves to observe the delicate creatures collected in the tide pools, for just a few hours before the sea covers them again. She is always aware of her father's admonition about unpredictable "sneaker waves," and is nearly claimed by one as she and her balking goat attempt to return home one day. They are rescued by a Chinese boy with whom Eliza feels an immediate spiritual connection, prompting her to question her father's beliefs that the immigrants are godless heathens and opportunists who take jobs away from the townspeople. She becomes an outspoken advocate for the Chinese a month later when she wanders into a shantytown and witnesses an old man (who turns out to be her rescuer's grandfather) being threatened and bullied. In ensuing days, anti-Chinese sentiment escalates, with vigilantes forcing the immigrants from their homes at gunpoint. Eliza harbors Wah Chung until her secret is exposed, and then pleads that he not be handed over to authorities who are likely to expel or harm him. Eliza challenges her father and her community to live up to their Christian values by protecting the boy. This is a gripping and complex story, and Fletcher's lyrical depiction of 19th-century life, her exceptionally well-drawn protagonist, and her deft analysis of racial discrimination make the book even more powerful.

William McLoughlin, Brookside School, Worthington, OH

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 214 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum; 1st edition (November 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689841337
• ISBN-13: 978-0689841330
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,913,497 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful historical novel., October 17, 2001

By 

Rebecca Herman (USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Walk Across the Sea (Hardcover)

Ever since she was three years old, Eliza Jane McCully has lived in the lighthouse at Crescent City, California, where her father is the keeper. Now thirteen, Eliza has many responsibilities, helping her father to keep the light burning, and eagerly awaiting the birth of her new baby sibling. One day while chasing her stubborn goat across the pathway to the island, she is caught by a wave. A Chinese boy saves her goat and warns her about the wave just in time. Eliza is confused, because her father has taught her that the Chinese are evil heathens. An unexpected tragedy causes Eliza to doubt her own beliefs as well as questioning her father's. When the townspeople run the Chinese out of Crescent City, Eliza watches in horror, unable to do anything. But when the boy who rescued her comes to her for help, Eliza must make the ultimate decision. Is she is brave enough to openly defy her father? I highly reccomend this novel to readers who enjoy historical fiction.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get Swept Away By Walk Across the Sea, April 20, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Walk Across the Sea (Hardcover)

18th century California was a time of prejudice. Walk Across the Sea, centers around independent Eliza Jane, a young teenage girl who lives with her parents in a northern California lighthouse. When a mysterious Chinese immigrant boy saves her goat from the California waters, she tries to find him to pay him back. She soon learns that prejudice surrounds the Chinese by the people of her town. Along the way helping her is her brave and helpful friend Sadie, her open minded and kind neighbor, Dr Wilton and her pet goat Parthenia. This story has a mix of friendship, prejudice, religion, compassion, and morality. This out of the ordinary story shows prejudice back then and gives lessons on how we can be rid of prejudice today. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested about life in general. Walk Across the Sea makes you think about things that you normally wouldn't think about in life. You learn you always have to been open minded and very conscious of other people and their beliefs. If you want to read a different story, Walk Across the Sea is for you! I also recommend ALL books in the Dear America, My Name Is America, and Royal Diaries Series.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lots of layers, November 2, 2010

By 

Jessica Oliveros - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Walk Across the Sea (Aladdin Historical Fiction) (Paperback)

Written from the perspective of a thirteen year-old girl, Eliza, in late nineteenth century Crescent City, California. Eliza lives on an island with her parents and helps them run the lighthouse. (Interesting historical fact-this is the Battery Point lighthouse in Crescent City. The characters are fictional, but the lighthouse is not.)

Many residents of Crescent City want the Chinese out. Eliza begins to question the prevailing prejudice when she makes friends with a young Chinese boy. She must stand up for what she knows is right, even if it means standing up to her own father.

I thought this book was so well written and with so many layers. First of all, the lighthouse and island life were so intricately described...I could tell the author did her research. As a reader, I could love the island with Eliza and all its wildness and storms and unpredictableness.

In a way, the island kind of parallelled Eliza's life at that time. The sea was tempestuous just like the townspeople and there wasn't a whole lot she could do to affect the outcome of campaign against the Chinese...other than stand (like an "island") for what she believed was right.

And the lighthouse was God because this was also a story about Eliza's coming into her faith by her own right, and not leaning so much on the faith of others. SPOILER: There is a beautiful scene at the end, in the lighthouse when Eliza knows that God is listening.

Eliza's father is among the townspeople that do not want the Chinese in Crescent City, and she struggles with reconciling the father she loves -and who is a good man- with the father who is prejudiced.

SPOILER: Eliza's mother has a miscarriage. In a way, I saw this book as pro-life. Eliza saw the unborn child. Eliza sought out the doctor and asked him to show her the graveyard where the unborn children were buried. Eliza refers to the baby as her "little sister," and the baby is eventually brought back to the island and buried.

In the end, the family makes a sacrifice which is sad, but beautiful, too. And right. It ended just how it should end