Olive's Ocean: A Newbery Honor Award Winner - Softcover

Henkes, Kevin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060535458 ISBN 13: 9780060535452

Publisher: Greenwillow Books, 2005

Synopsis

A brilliant, touching coming-of-age story, and a Newbery Honor Book.

Martha Boyle and Olive Barstow could have been friends, but they weren't. Weeks after a tragic accident, all that is left are eerie connections between the two girls, former classmates who both kept the same secret without knowing it.

Now, even while on vacation at the ocean, Martha can't stop thinking about Olive. Things only get more complicated when Martha begins to like Jimmy Manning, a neighbor boy she used to despise. What is going on? Can life for Martha be the same ever again?

Multiple award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Kevin Henkes brings his insightful, gentle, real-world insight to middle grade novels, including:

• Billy Miller Makes a Wish
• Bird Lake Moon
• The Birthday Room
• Junonia
• Olive's Ocean
• Protecting Marie
• Sun & Spoon
• Sweeping Up the Heart
• Two Under Par
• Words of Stone
• The Year of Billy Miller
• The Zebra Wall

About this title

About the Author

Kevin Henkes has been praised both as a writer and as an illustrator and is the recipient of the Children’s Literature Legacy Award for his lasting contribution to literature for children. 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 The World and Everything in It, A House, A Parade of Elephants, Chrysanthemum, and the beloved Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse. Kevin Henkes lives with his family in Madison, Wisconsin.

From the Back Cover

Sometimes life can change in an instant

Martha Boyle and Olive Barstow could have been friends, but they weren't. Weeks after a tragic accident, all that is left are eerie connections between the two girls, former classmates who both kept the same secret without knowing it. Now, even while on vacation at the ocean, Martha can't stop thinking about Olive. Things only get more complicated when Martha begins to like Jimmy Manning, a neighbor boy she used to despise. What is going on? Can life for Martha be the same ever again?

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Olive's Ocean

By Kevin Henkes

HarperTrophy

Copyright © 2003 Kevin Henkes
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-06-053545-2

Chapter One

A Beginning

"Are you Martha Boyle?"

Martha nodded.

"You don't know me," said the woman at the door. "Olive Barstow was my daughter. I was her mother."

Martha heard herself gasp. A small, barely audible gasp.

"I don't know how well you knew Olive," said the woman. "She was so shy." The woman reached into the pocket of the odd smock she was wearing and retrieved a folded piece of paper. "But I found this in her journal, and I think she'd want you to have it."

The rusted screen that separated them gave the woman a gauzy appearance. Martha cracked open the door to receive the pink rectangle.

"That's all," the woman said, already stepping oV the stoop. "And thank you. Thank you, Martha Boyle."

The woman mounted a very old bicycle and pedaled away, her long, sleek braid hanging behind her like a tail.

Breathing deeply to quiet her heart, Martha remained by the door thinking about Olive Barstow, unable for the moment to unfold the paper and read it.

Chapter Two

An End

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.

A sad image of Olive rose in Martha's mind: a quiet, unremarkable girl, a loner with averted eyes, clinging to the lockers when walking down the hallways at school.

The image that Xashed next was imagined and worse: Olive Xying through the air, after impact, like a bird, then scraping along the pavement and lying in a heap at the curbside, never to move again.

Excerpted from Olive's Oceanby Kevin Henkes Copyright © 2003 by Kevin Henkes. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: Greenwillow Books
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060535458
• ISBN 13: 9780060535452
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224