On Different Shores - Hardcover

McVeity, Jen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 053130115X ISBN 13: 9780531301159

Publisher: Orchard Books, 1998

Synopsis

While participating in the rescue of a beached whale, Australian teenager Tess finally confronts her fear of swimming and begins to resolve her difficult relationship with her father

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Gr 6-9-The title of this novel has several meanings for Tess, an Australian teen. She is torn between her two homes: she lives during the week with her father, stepmother, and younger half-sister and spends the weekends with her mother. There is a growing rift between Tess and her father, whose rising political career has taken priority over his family life. Once a promising swimmer, she has dropped the sport and let her grades drop as well. She hides her recurring nightmares about drowning, just as she hides her involvement in the Green Guerrillas, an underground group of young environmentalists whose actions are becoming more and more confrontational. A near-fatal accident on a high industrial chimney exposes Tess's guerrilla activities, much to the consternation of her father. Relationships grow more strained, until Tess and her sister discover a beached whale, which provides the vehicle for the family, including both her mother and stepmother, to pull together around a shared crisis. By the story's end, Tess has confronted her fear of swimming, made some headway with her father, and managed to connect the different shores in her life. This is a well-written novel that sympathetically portrays a teen trying to juggle different families, roles, and expectations while figuring out who she is and how to be herself.-Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME

Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Orchard Books
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 053130115X
• ISBN 13: 9780531301159
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 167