Sand Dollar Summer

by Kimberly K. Jones

Book Overview

Twelve-year-old Lise watches her safe world fall apart when her strong, self-reliant mom is injured in a car accident. To recuperate, Mom takes Lise and her bright little brother to live in a rattletrap house on the beach in Maine for the summer. Although her mother grew up there, this is Lise's first experience with the ocean. She's terrified by what may be lurking in the cold depths and confused by the ways that Maine is changing her mother. As...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1416958347
• ISBN13: 9781416958345
• Release Date: June 2008
• Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 7.7"
• Age Range: 9 to 13 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 8

Customer Reviews

Ahhhhhh

This is one of those books you'll go "ahhhh" to after setting it down. If you model your thinking as you do a read aloud with your kids, this one would be great. It would also be a great lit circle book. My only warning is that an adult says the "s" word twice....so be prepared to have your kids handle that maturely. Loved it!!!

Best read for kids or adults!

Seriously, this author writes better than the majority of popular adult fiction writers I have read lately. This is a real pager turner, very believable characters and engrossing. Can't wait for another from the author!

Wonderful

I've read about 40 children's books in the last three months as part of a library-related project. This book stands out as the very best children's book I have read recently and one that I'd highly recommend to all children in grades 5-8. Some of it is predictable, but you won't care since you are enjoying this book so much and you care about the characters. The story is well written and a wonderful debut book for this author. I look forward to reading more of her work.

Amazing

Wow! I never knew that somebody I know would write a novel for kids that is so good! I am 11, but this story is for everyone. I read this in two hours one afternoon, because I couldn't put it down. Buy this book and you'll see!

as good a first novel as I've read in years

I read this before cataloging it for our young adult collection. What a wonderful book!. It starts smoothly and pulls you in immediately. All of the characters are people you care about and want to have good things happen to. The dialogue is believable and the setting, particularly Fiddle Island is well developed and sure seems like Maine. There are several minor mysteries; why did Lise and Free's father leave, what happened between Michael and their mother when they were young, what connection does Ben have to Lise and Free? The descriptions and dialogue do a wonderful job of allowing you to look behind the interactions between the characters. One aspect I really liked was Lise's fear of the sea which almost makes the Atlantic Ocean become another character in the book. This is one I will strongly suggest as a great summer read to my young adult library patrons.