Returning to Shore

Gr 6–9—While her mother goes off for her honeymoon with her third husband, Clare is shipped off to spend the summer with her father, a man she hasn't seen since she was three. There's barely a road and no cell reception on the tiny island off Martha's Vineyard where he lives, and the summer residents know him simply as an eccentric whose obsession with turtles stands in the way of their grand houses. Clare wonders if she'll be able to connect with this man with whom she shares biology but little else. Although Clare is supposed to be 15, her dialogue—both interior and exterior—reads far younger. This is not such a deficit, as the delivery of the book's themes—environmental destruction and sexual acceptance—aim squarely at younger teens. A good title to bridge middle grade readers to slightly more mature stories and narratives.—L. Lee Butler, Stoughton High School, MA