Sea - Hardcover

Kling, Heidi R.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0399251634 ISBN 13: 9780399251634

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers, 2010

Synopsis

Still haunted by nightmares of her mother's death, fifteen-year-old Sienna Jones reluctantly travels to Indonesia with her father's relief team to help tsunami orphans with their post traumatic stress disorder--something Sienna knows a lot about. Since her mother's plane went missing over the Indian Ocean three years before, Sienna doesn't do anything if it involves the ocean or planes, so this trip is a big step forward.

But the last thing she expects is to fall for Deni, a brooding Indonesian boy who lives at the orphanage, and just so happens to be HOT. When Deni hears a rumor that his father may be alive, Sienna doesn't think twice about running away with him to the epicenter of the disaster. Unfortunately, what they find there could break both their hearts.

A compelling summer romance, Sea marks the arrival of a stunning new voice in YA.
 

 

About this title

About the Author

Heidi R. Kling lives in Palo Alto, California.

Reviews

Grade 8 Up—Sienna is afraid—of airplanes, of the ocean, of life. She has had these fears for three years, ever since her mother's plane disappeared over the ocean while on a humanitarian aid trip in Thailand. On her 15th birthday, she gets the worst present she can imagine: a plane ticket to accompany her dad and two other doctors on a two-week trip to an Indonesian orphanage—one housing children and young adults who are survivors of the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Sienna doesn't want to go, and the cultural differences and deprivations do not make her any happier once there. On her first night, during a welcoming program hosted by the orphans, she meets Deni, a 17-year-old from Aceh, the tsunami's epicenter. Their relationship develops quickly and leads to actions and decisions that are ill-considered and dangerous—both in a Muslim culture and during a state of civil unrest. Sienna loses her fears much faster than one would expect, and her return home to a friendship that is evolving into a romance, so soon after she was in love with another boy whose life was filled with tragedy, makes her seem emotionally shallow. Teens who like relationship novels will overlook these flaws, but the book is definitely an additional purchase.—Suanne Roush, Osceola High School, Seminole, FL
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“I’m sitting alone on the other side of the world talking to a sea turtle that might be my mom.” So begins Kling’s debut novel, the story of 15-year-old Sienna (Sea to her friends), who lost her mother three years earlier when her plane disappeared over the Indian Ocean. Her body was never found, and Sienna secretly believes she could still be alive. Joining her father’s psychiatric team helping child victims of the 2004 tsunami, she spends two weeks in an Indonesian refugee camp where she meets the gorgeous and enigmatic Deni, with whom she has an instant connection and a bittersweet romance. Kling blends facts about Indonesian culture and the wake of the tsunami with a lyrical story of loss and daring to love again. The evocative cover art (a couple silhouetted against watery blue tiles) and exotic locale will attract readers, although the cultural details sometimes lack elegant exposition. Sienna’s loss, newfound courage and eventual acceptance of the changes in her life ring true in the satisfying and wholly believable first-person narrative. Grades 7-10. --Debbie Carton

Edition details

• Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0399251634
• ISBN 13: 9780399251634
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336