Returning to Shore

September 1, 2014

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

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 15, 2014
A thoughtful teen reconnects with her nature-loving father on Cape Cod. Fourteen year-old Clare is less than thrilled with her mother's plan to have her spend three weeks on a remote island with her father, Richard: She hasn't seen him in twelve years, and they only speak on Christmas. Vera and her third husband are jetting off to honeymoon in France, though, so Blackfish Island, ho! Richard isn't much of a conversationalist, but his diffident silence lets Clare come to appreciate, in her own time, her father and his work preserving the nests and habitat of the endangered Northern diamondback terrapin. Gradually, through walks on the beach, kayaking around the bay and board games, the two find their way toward an honest and loving relationship. Some obnoxious neighbors, walking cliches whose every move embodies thoughtless entitlement and ignorance of the island's natural rhythms, are the one weak spot here. Demas' careful seeding of details about Richard's life in the years between his divorce from Vera and his re-emergence in Clare's life is subtle enough that the revelation of what held him back from maintaining any substantive relationship with her will be surprising and ring true to most readers. Their father-daughter bond feels both earned and earnest. A quiet, lovely story with a satisfyingly sentimental ending. (Fiction. 13-16)

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February 1, 2014
Grades 7-10 Clare last saw her biological father when she was three years old. When her mother goes on a honeymoon with husband number three, the 15-year-old is forced to spend the summer on Cape Cod with the dad she only remembers from photos. Their tentative relationship is much like caring for the endangered northern diamondback terrapin her father studies and tries to save: they must tread lightly, give space, and allow events to happen when the timing is right. And like the terrapin's return to shore, Clare's return to the Cape is just as poignant. As she learns the real reasons behind her parents divorce and the impact her father's undisclosed sexual orientation had on his decision to stay out of her life, she and her father not only begin to connect as parent and child but also as fellow adults. In this coming-of-age novel, Clare must also decide how she feels about her father's identity, especially when faced with friends' homophobia. A quiet, thoughtful story for sophisticated readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2014
Clare's mother sends her to Cape Cod to spend two weeks with her biological father, Richard, whom she hasn't seen since she was three. While slowly getting to know each other, father and daughter monitor the island's endangered turtles. Though hampered by flat dialogue, this contemplative story features realistic family dynamics and highlights its setting's natural beauty.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)