MIDDLE GRADE REALISTIC FICTION : Strong Like the Sea by Wendy S. Swore
ABOUT THE BOOK
Even though twelve-year-old Alexis was born in Hawaii, she won’t surf or swim with her friends—not since the ocean and its hidden creatures swept her out to sea. Instead, she grabs her best detective hat and decodes her mom’s latest challenge.
Alex’s mom works in counterintelligence and leaves codes, ciphers, and puzzles behind for Alex to solve, always with a “treasure” at the end. It’s a brilliant game between them, and Alex loves figuring out her mom’s puzzles—especially the tricky ones—but when an emergency at sea puts her mom in possible danger, solving the next one suddenly feels far more urgent.
Friends help as Alex races to decipher each clue before time runs out, but when the trail leads to grumpy old Uncle, his enormous dog Sarge, and a sea turtle unlike any other, the challenge changes into something bigger than any before. With storms on the horizon and lives on the line, Alex must face her fears to solve Mom’s challenge and save those she loves. With her ohana to help, she must be strong like the sea.
Featuring a secret ocean code with a hidden message for YOU to decipher!
Alex’s mom works in counterintelligence and leaves codes, ciphers, and puzzles behind for Alex to solve, always with a “treasure” at the end. It’s a brilliant game between them, and Alex loves figuring out her mom’s puzzles—especially the tricky ones—but when an emergency at sea puts her mom in possible danger, solving the next one suddenly feels far more urgent.
Friends help as Alex races to decipher each clue before time runs out, but when the trail leads to grumpy old Uncle, his enormous dog Sarge, and a sea turtle unlike any other, the challenge changes into something bigger than any before. With storms on the horizon and lives on the line, Alex must face her fears to solve Mom’s challenge and save those she loves. With her ohana to help, she must be strong like the sea.
Featuring a secret ocean code with a hidden message for YOU to decipher!
THE AUTHOR
Wendy S. Swore is the author of A Monster Like Me, nominee of the Arizona Grand Canyon Reader Award, the Oklahoma Sequoyah Award and winner of the Foreword Reviews Indie Gold Award for Juvenile Fiction.
REVIEW
Swore's Strong Like the Sea shares the story of a girl living in Hawaii whose mother works as a contractor with the military and is gone a lot. To help with the absences, Alex's mother creates puzzles, codes, and ciphers for Alex to solve leading to fun rewards and surprises. Alex still misses her mother desperately despite their weekly online visits. Her anxieties and a past trauma regarding the ocean leave Alex struggling with things she can't control. When she is presented with a new challenge from her mother, an especially big one, Alex starts to realize that it's okay to get help from her friends and family. This becomes especially important when Alex and her father lose contact with her mother and must wrestle with their fear.
First of all, I loved the setting. Swore's lover of Hawaii shines through in the details shared in the story. The advantages and disadvantages of living on a island become evident as the story goes on. Especially when the main character is terrified of the ocean and sees it as a living creature that is out to get her. Yet living next to the ocean with family and friends who adore the ocean makes it difficult for Alex to stay away from it entirely. A significant part of the story revolves around Alex coming to terms with her past experiences and learning to talk about and face her fears with the help of those who love her best.
The second thing I really liked was the characters. Alex makes a great main character with her eagerness to be as smart and capable as her mother, but full of anxieties and her past trauma. Her parents clearly have their own issues that create challenges in their relationships but it's great to read a book with both parents alive and trying hard to be good parents. Alex has great friends who also have their own challenges but who try to support her. Two of my favorite characters are "Auntie" and "Uncle" who aren't actually related but who took in her mother as a child and are considered family.
Swore's created an enjoyable, thoughtful story with great characters in a fabulous setting with plenty of interesting challenges and problems for the characters to wrestle with and try to overcome. A great read for young readers who enjoy what I like to call "problem" or "issue" stories with realistic characters and situations.
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