Olive's Ocean: A Newbery Honor Award Winner (Newbery Honor Book) - Hardcover

Henkes, Kevin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060535431 ISBN 13: 9780060535438

Publisher: Greenwillow Books, 2003

Synopsis

"Olive Barstow was dead. She'd been hit by a car on Monroe Street while riding her bicycle weeks ago. That was about all Martha knew."

Martha Boyle and Olive Barstow could have been friends. But they weren't -- and now all that is left are eerie connections between two girls who were in the same grade at school and who both kept the same secret without knowing it.

Now Martha can't stop thinking about Olive. A family summer on Cape Cod should help banish those thoughts; instead, they seep in everywhere.

And this year Martha's routine at her beloved grandmother's beachside house is complicated by the Manning boys. Jimmy, Tate, Todd, Luke, and Leo. But especially Jimmy. What if, what if, what if, what if? The world can change in a minute.

About this title

About the Author

Kevin Henkes is an award-winning author and illustrator of many books for children of all ages. He received the Caldecott Medal for Kitten’s First Full Moon; Caldecott Honors for Waiting and Owen; two Newbery Honors—one for Olive’s Ocean and one for The Year of Billy Miller—and Geisel Honors for Waiting and Penny and Her Marble. His other books include Egg, Old Bear, A Good Day, Chrysanthemum, and the beloved Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse. Kevin Henkes lives with his family in Madison, Wisconsin. www.kevinhenkes.com

From AudioFile

Twelve-year-old Martha Boyle stands on the brink of discovery: about her family, about first love, and mostly about herself. As her family prepares for the annual visit to her paternal grandmother, Martha is given a journal entry from her classmate, Olive, who was killed in an automobile accident. Martha didn't really know Olive, but the journal entry makes Martha reflect on what might have been if Olive hadn't died. In her two weeks on Cape Cod, Martha learns to deal with the changing emotional landscape that comes with adolescence. This quiet, introspective story seems a bit overwhelmed by Blair Brown's strong, deep voice. While she reads with calm assurance, delineating the characters well with inflection and pacing, the overall effect is disappointing. A lighter voice might have provided more sparkle for the carefully crafted language and the depiction of the main character's changing self-awareness so skillfully created by Henkes. S.G. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Greenwillow Books
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0060535431
• ISBN 13: 9780060535438
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224