Olive's Ocean ANNOTATION
A 2004 Newbery Honor Book
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Olive Barstow was in Martha Boyle's class until she was killed by a hit-and-run driver while riding her bicycle. Martha didn't know Olive -- not really. But after Olive's mother gives her a section from Olive's journal, Martha knows they could have been, would have been friends. And now Martha and her family are going to visit Godbee, Martha's grandmother, on Cape Cod for the rest of the summer -- as they do every year. The Boyles descent of Godbee's small house in a flurry of exuberance, mini-crises, diapers, and humor all mixed together. The ocean is still there. And the five Manning boys still live nearby. There is Jimmy Manning with his ever-present video camera. Jimmy Manning, who gives Martha her first kiss. And Tate, who seems to follow Martha with his eyes. And then there is Olive, who had always wanted to see the ocean, and who now haunts Martha's thoughts and dreams.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
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. (Aug.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Children's Literature
Martha is bothered by the death of a girl, Olive, whom she barely knew. In this story that takes place in about a week, she manages to remember Olive in a way that will let her go on. Martha is also betrayed by a boy into a first kiss, which she parlays into even more strength. Martha is so memorable, as are the other characters in the storyﾽHenkes is a master at creating people we know engaged in the business of growing up, in all the shaggy wonder that implies. I think middle school girls will like not being talked down to in Olive's Ocean. They will like the way Martha begins to see boys and first loves, how she deals with the realization that her grandmother is probably sicker than she is letting on, how she observes the way adults and parents lose their tempers and patch things up, and the way she begins to figure what life might be all aboutﾽto her. A superior growing up/coming-of-age story. 2003, Greenwillow, 0060535431
KLIATT - Claire Rosser
Martha Boyle is one of the memorable 12-year-old girls of fiction, smart, confused, compassionate. I like the fact that she has been created by a male author, who manages to combine poetic images with realistic down-to-earth growing pains. Most of the story takes place within a two-week period when Martha and her family are vacationing on the New England coast at their grandmother's home. Martha has been seared by the accidental death of a classmate, Olive, who no one really liked much. Olive's mother delivers a paper written by Olive to Martha in which Olive wrote that Martha was someone she hoped could be her friend, that Olive wanted to be a writer, that she wanted to see the ocean. So as Martha goes off for the two weeks, she tries to become the writer Olive now has no chance of being and she tries to appreciate the ocean that Olive no longer will be able to see. Martha is close to her elderly grandmother, who encourages her writing. Other important characters are Martha's little toddler sister, her parents, and her older brother. At the beach, a boy next door takes an interest in Martha, who experiences the first pangs of attraction and then humiliation when she finds out the boy is just using her in his filmmaking effortsﾽinterested in her more as a subject for his film than for the person she is. Fortunately, the boy has a brother who restores Martha's faith in herself. Here is a sample passage: "Martha admired her brother, and liked and loved him, too, even as she sometimes was offended by him. He was sarcastic and funny and smart and oddly childlike, and could be counted on to be brutally honest concerning matters of the greatest importance. 'You've got a zit on the back of yourneck that's ready to explode,' he'd once told her. 'Don't wear those shoes in public,' he'd said another time, 'unless you want to look like a complete dork.'" The book is divided into chapters of various lengths that are frequently like prose poems, some a few sentences, some several paragraphs, others four or five pages long, each with the sort of title one might expect in a book of poetry. KLIATT Codes: J*ﾽExceptional book, recommended for junior high school students. 2003, HarperCollins, Greenwillow, 217p.,
School Library Journal
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 Reed Business Information.
AudioFile
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. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine
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