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From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)

Twleve-year-old Martha Boyle and her family are preparing to leave for their annual Cape Cod vacation to visit her grandmother, Godbee, when Olive Barstow’s mother appears at the door. Olive was a classmate of Martha’s who was recently killed by a car. In the journal entry that Olive’s mother has come to share, Olive outlines her plan of becoming a writer and her dreams of seeing the ocean. She also writes that Martha Boyle is the nicest girl in her class. It’s all a jolt to Martha. Like everyone else, she didn’t know Olive well, and can’t recall ever being particularly kind to the misfit girl, with whom, she discovers too late, she had much in common. Martha, too, dreams of becoming a writer, although she hasn’t shared her desire with anyone. And the ocean is her favorite place to be. The unsettled feeling she’s left with is a portent of how the entire summer will unfold. On vacation, Martha is struck by the fact that her beloved grandmother is getting old. And Martha falls in love, but the tender sweetness of her first crush ends in cruel humiliation that leaves Martha reeling. The introspective Martha holds a lot inside. But vital and vibrant Godbee is sensitive to her granddaughter’s turbulent feelings and gently encourages her to share what she can—and is willing—about her thoughts, her fears, and her dreams. Martha is also part of a lively and funny family whose relationships are loving and edgy, as parents and siblings so often are. Kevin Henkes’s novel sparkles with strong characterization, fine dialogue, and lovely imagery that help propel a sensitive story about a summer of new awakening. (Ages 10–14)

CCBC Choices 2004 © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2004. Used with permission.

From Publisher's Weekly

April 18, 2005
A journal entry of a classmate killed in an accident sends 12-year-old Martha on an unintended pilgrimage. In our Best Books citation, PW
wrote, "Readers witness Martha's maturation as she appreciates life anew and finds a way to give something back to Olive." Ages 10-up.

From Horn Book

January 1, 2004
Henkes draws us into one summer in the life of a familiar, convincing, fully realized twelve-year-old girl. The book is a web of relationships with Martha at the center. A beloved older brother begins to pull away. Martha sees her grandmother with new eyes. Martha and her mother can't seem to stop irritating each other. Henkes's strengths as a fiction writer--economy, grace, humor, and respect for his characters--are given wonderful play here.

(Copyright 2004 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

From Booklist

Starred review from September 1, 2003
Gr. 5-8. More than anything Martha wants to be a writer. The problem is that her father does, too. Is there room for two writers in a single family? This is only one of the many questions that beg to be answered during Martha's twelfth summer. Here are others: Is Godbee, the paternal grandmother whom the family is visiting at Cape Cod, dying? Why is Martha's father so angry? Could Jimmy, the eldest of the five neighboring Manning brothers, be falling in love with her (and vice-versa)? And what does all this have to do with Olive, Martha's mysterious classmate, who died after being hit by a car weeks earlier? Olive, who also wanted to be a writer and visit the ocean, and hoped to be Martha's friend. Like Henkes' " Sun and Spoon" (1997), this is another lovely, character-driven novel that explores, with rare subtlety and sensitivity, the changes and perplexities that haunt every child's growing-up process. He brings to his story the same bedrock understanding of the emotional realities of childhood that he regularly displays in his paradigmatically perfect picture books. This" "isn't big and splashy, but its quiet art and intelligence will stick with readers, bringing them comfort and reassurance as changes inevitably visit their own growing-up years.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)

From Publisher's Weekly

Starred review from August 18, 2003
With his usual sensitivity and insight, Henkes (The Birthday Room) explores key issues of adolescence, through the observations of aspiring 12-year-old writer Martha Boyle. In the opening scene on an August morning in Madison, Wis., Martha receives a visitor: the mother of her classmate Olive Barstow, who was hit by a car the month before. The woman hands Martha a journal entry, in which Olive describes her own wish to be a writer—and to "get to know Martha Boyle next year... the nicest person in my whole entire class." Since Olive kept to herself, these revelations forge an unexpected bond between Martha and this classmate she never knew. The other hope Olive confides in the entry is that she could "one day... go to a real ocean such as the Atlantic or Pacific." Martha begins an unwitting pilgrimage of sorts: she strolls with her toddler sister to the corner where Olive died and, when she goes to visit her grandmother, Godbee, on Cape Cod, Martha experiences the ocean for Olive and for herself. In brief chapters, Henkes reveals Martha's discovery of life's fleeting qualities, her deepening bond with Godbee, and her first stirrings of romantic feeling and betrayal. Readers can peer through this brief window into Martha's life and witness a maturation, as she becomes a young woman, appreciates life anew and finds a way to give something back to Olive. Ages 10-up.

From School Library Journal

Starred review from August 1, 2003
Gr 5-8-As Martha and her family prepare for their annual summer visit to New England, the mother of her deceased classmate comes to their door. Olive Barstow was killed by a car a month earlier, and the woman wants to give Martha a page from her daughter's journal. In this single entry, the 12-year-old learns more about her shy classmate than she ever knew: Olive also wanted to be a writer; she wanted to see the ocean, just as Martha soon will; and she hoped to get to know Martha Boyle as "she is the nicest person in my whole entire class." Martha cannot recall anything specific she ever did to make Olive think this, but she's both touched and awed by their commonalities. She also recognizes that if Olive can die, so can she, so can anybody, a realization later intensified when Martha herself nearly drowns. At the Cape, Martha is again reminded that things in her life are changing. She experiences her first kiss, her first betrayal, and the glimmer of a first real boyfriend, and her relationship with Godbee, her elderly grandmother, allows her to examine her intense feelings, aspirations, concerns, and growing awareness of self and others. Rich characterizations move this compelling novel to its satisfying and emotionally authentic conclusion. Language is carefully formed, sometimes staccato, sometimes eloquent, and always evocative to create an almost breathtaking pace. Though Martha remains the focus, others around her become equally realized, including Olive, to whom Martha ultimately brings the ocean.-Maria B. Salvadore, formerly at District of Columbia Public Library

Copyright 2003 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

From AudioFile Magazine

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. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine