Secret Sisters of the Salty Sea

Since I'm not doing webcasts every month, I've developed a new way to track what I'm reading and what I think about it. I started an old fashioned notebook. A lovely handwritten collection of my thoughts as I read books for my What's New in Children's Books workshop. I try to record where the book takes place, where the author lives, debut?, related books or books it reminds me of. I jot down quotes that speak to me. I scribble questions I think about while I'm reading. I note potentially sensitive areas for cautious communities. I think about how it might be used in a classroom or library setting.

Sometimes my entries are quite long, filling pages of words from the author. (I'm using mostly library books, so writing in the books is a no-no.) Then I get to Secret Sisters of the Salty Sea. It has three starred reviews, plus it is Lynne Rae Perkins. It's a must-read for me already. And I have a sister that I love and am close to. She lives by the Salty Sea.

As I said in an earlier post, I kept waiting for the shoe to drop. Would one of the sisters drown? Do the parents get a divorce? Will a hurricane interrupt their first visit to the ocean? Does Alix (the younger sister) do something so terrible she loses her new friend Nessa? Um. No.

Perkins tells the story of a mom and dad who drive their children across the country on their first ocean vacation. Content clues suggest that it's the east coast, as the sun sets not over the beach, but behind the trees. (and there's a cranberry bog) Though there is some drama--the girls get tugged by the current, Alix is embarrassed following a trip to the bakery, and a teenage girl is rescued by the lifeguards--it's a feel-good read about a family that gets along. About sisters who like each other--mostly. About parents who are working at parenting. About reaching out to people you don't know--people who don't look like you.

The language is beautiful.
"The bottom of the sky glowed deep electric blue at the far end of Boskley Street. Overhead it was prickled with stars. The houses under the sky, which Alix knew by heart in the daytime, were also dark. Dark like mysteries, or secrets. Friendly secrets. Everyone was asleep."

It could also be a guidebook for what to do on a family beach vacation. They walk and explore, but they also learn things while they do so. They visit a raptor center that rescues and rehabilitates wounded birds. Alix learns about sea glass and invents a necklace, turning it into a pay-it-forward moment by making them for her new vacation friends.

We laugh at the kids "playing casino." It even comes with a warning: "Never gamble: you could lose all your Goldfish."

Secret Sisters is suggested for grades 3 to 6. It's written on a 5.0 RL. It would be a lovely read aloud and is available in ebook and audiobook platforms. It's a Junior Library Guild Selection. Teaching Guide is available at the publisher’s site which  includes discussion questions and extension activities. Read a Sample at the Publisher’s website. And directions for making your own sea glass necklace are included. It could be a great makerspace project. Or bring in a bucket of shells and see what happens. 

Oh. And what did I write in my notebook about it? I got so caught up in the story that I forgot to write in my book. What an awesome thing that you can lose yourself in a story and forget that it's homework.