I have always had a soft spot in my heart for good children's novels. There is a simple elegance to them that cannot be matched by anything geared toward adults. Olive's Ocean, a recent Newbery Honor winner, is the most recent I have enjoyed.
The book starts off with our main character, Martha Boyle, answering her family's house door. A strange woman is there and gives her a a piece of paper. The woman identifies herself as being Olive Barstow's mother. The paper is from Olive's journal and the woman wants Martha to have it.
Olive was hit by a car a number of weeks ago. Martha had barely known her. She was the quiet girl no one knew or thought about. Yet, in reading the journal entry, Martha starts to see parts of herself in the writing. Every paragraph in the book mirrors something about Martha. Olive wants to write novels. Martha also has a secret desire to write a book. Olive wants to visit an ocean, and Martha is leaving the next day to visit her grandmother who lives on the Atlantic coast. The last paragraph even mentions Martha by name. "I hope I get to know Martha Boyle next year... I hope that we can be friends... She is the nicest person in the entire class."
This sets off a hurricane of thinking for Martha. It's sobering enough for a classmate from school to die. It's even more so when you read a journal entry from that person and you get named as a hopeful future friend.
Arriving at the ocean does not stop the hurricaine for Martha. However, it does skew her thoughts in several different directions. She starts to think about her grandmother's inevitable death. About the neighbor boy whom she has her eye on. And, yes, about Olive and even her own life.
She falls for Jimmy, the neighbor boy a couple of years older than herself. He is working on filming a movie titled "The World Is Not What You Think It Is." It's definitely an interesting artistic statement and Jimmy's only thought is to get the footage he needs for the film. He finds the time, however, to go on walks with Martha, holding her hand as they talk.
It's not too long, though, before he goes for the plunge and kisses her. It turns sour when afterward Martha realizes he had his camera on and was filming the whole thing. The walks, the holding hands, it was all just a build up so that he could get a kiss on film. Martha is devastated, and embarrassed because everyone will see it on his film. And to make everything much more irritating, there was even a bet between Jimmy and his brothers as to how fast he could get the kiss from her.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Eric Olsen
very, very nice TT - well-written and edited and good ideas!
2 - maya
I think that Olive's Ocean gives so much good feeling to the reader. I also think that it is a book that all children should read. It told me to give everything and everyone (spacifically everyone) a chance in life. In this enchanting book, I think that Martha should've given Olive a chance before Olive and her mother weren't in Martha's reach any longer. Olive's Ocean touched my heart like no other book. I do hope to read it again. This book is so wonderful in it's end and so meant to be, the first thing my body said to me was cry, cry. And I did.
3 - maya
I think that Olive's Ocean gives so much good feeling to the reader. I also think that it is a book that all children should read. It told me to give everything and everyone (spacifically everyone) a chance in life. In this enchanting book, I think that Martha should've given Olive a chance before Olive and her mother weren't in Martha's reach any longer. Olive's Ocean touched my heart like no other book. I do hope to read it again. This book is so wonderful in it's end and so meant to be, the first thing my body said to me was cry, cry. And I did.
4 - Ellie
I think that olives ocean is a terrific book and is loved by many people all around the world. I really enjoyed reading this book. recently i have a lost a friend who i didnt really no very well but i wish i had of so i could really relate to it. At school we had to pick a book and do lots of assignments so i decided to choose that one and 6 people in my class went out and bought the book, so i have many more fans.
5 - lorhanny
this bbok is fasiniting i love it and after i copy every so i do not have to read this book maybe hey i will realyh read it for summer read at school not shut say i read it when i did not put read it!
6 - i dk
nice......i am reading this book too......and i am doing a project on it and i am like copying it.........hahaha.......THANKZ!! well....it is a nice book!!
7 - i dk
well.......not copy it all just put it on my owns words.....so yeah....
8 - i dk
well....REALLY NICE BOOK TOO!! O yeah i told u that o well......READ IT PPLS!!
9 - Mrs. S
This book seems to working great with my literature circles. Students have much to discuss after reading the assigned sections each day. The family seems so real, not perfect as many books portray.
10 - lauren
I honestly didn't enjoy Olive's Ocean all that much. I really don't know why, but i just didn't click with me. I think it's written really well and all, but i just didn't enjow it as much as the other people who wrote here.
11 - Tretrix
I really dislike the book, in all reality sucked and blowed. The book was filled with totally fake and pointless drama. Its almost as if the author locks himself in his room and thinks of what the outside world would be like and puts in in a book.
12 - Star Dust
This book was not my type. I like action packed books, not love scenes or old grandmotherly love. I was confused with this book most of the time, because there was some "gross" scenes that I wasn't prepared for.
13 - twinkle toes
This book was not my cup of tea. This was so because I was confused in the beging and some sence are inapropiate. One thing I liked was the end when everything came together.I loved reading in the lit. circles.
14 - Lost Queen
Olive's Ocean is a wonderful book to read aloud. Some chapters are very short. The characters seem so real with very detailed disciptions. It is an unforgettable book for many years to come.
15 - endlesshope
Olive's Ocean wasn't all that great. There was no point, but yet at the end, it got a little better.
16 - Molly
Wow! very powerful story! I liked it very much!!
17 - K
This book was boring. AT the beguining it was hard to understand which i started to lose interest in it.
18 - bookworm
This book teaches a lot of things like love, death, and family problems. Like when Martha falls head over heals for Jimmy Manning. She finds out that, yes, boys are dogs and think with there _____, she also realizes that Tate is into her way more and isn't going to use her like that jerk jimmy. The death is when Martha finds out Olive's gone. It hits her hard yet she didn't even know Olive. Through this book Martha goes through the stages of grief. The author writes in a 12 year old girl point of view, which makes you wonder since hes a guy, and shows all this emotion in one summer. I didn't like this book very much because there was no point, but it did show me a lot about life.
19 - Bucktooth Bobert
this book was three words- O.K.
20 - Bucktooth Bobert
sorry i ment good
21 - Anonymous
This book was very real to me. I know it's not suppose to be... but i now realize that death can happen just like that. In fact it could be a heart beat away. I know this cuz of my best friends cousin, who just died in a heavy machinery accident. I now have the sence of what Martha had just gone through. I wish to everyone that they wouldn't take life for granted.
22 - Coffee Time
I drank coffee and I accidentaly spilt it on one of your best seller books, The local bookstore manager wouldn't refund my money back since I still was in the bookstore and didn't pay for it yet, but with coffee stains and all, I can kinda make out some of the words. Your book is fasinateing to some people but not me. Maybe I should read other books then.
23 - brianna
i think this book is really good because it tells you about a girl that had just got a note from olive's mother. At first martha didn't know who wrote it. than she found out it was olive that wanted to be her friend. when martha went out of town she was in love with jimmy manning. But he played her. but martha found out who really is in love with her.
24 - Beans
I think this book was very deep and may be something about the authors feelings. I was very moved by this book and I want to read it again and again and again. I recomend this book for anybody who has gone through a rollercoaster of feelings.
25 - sasha
I think this book is quite boring and lame. It seems as if the words choice is confusing. I couldn't wait untill I had finished the book because I never knew who was who or what was going on. It was hard to follow.