Module 15

Module 15

Olive's Ocean

Summary
Just before going on vacation, Martha receives a letter from a schoolmate named Olive.  This letter was written before Olive was killed in a accident.  This letter changes Martha's attitude about her life and brings a new focus while she is on vacation at her grandmother's place by the ocean.  Olive had wanted to be Martha's friend and now Martha feels guilty that they were never very close.  While at her grandmother's, Olive contemplates what she can do for Olive's mother and she also has decided to become a writer and this gives her some perspective on what to write about.  In the meantime, she is a twelve year old girl dealing with peer pressure, parents, and siblings.  She learns alot about herself during this vacation and even though she does not get to give Olive's mother the present she wanted to, she feels better because she is home.

Citation
Henkes, Kevin. (2003). Olive's Ocean. New York: Greenwillow Books.

Impressions
This was the week of censored or challenged books so I was curious as to why each was on the list.  Olive's Ocean, I assume, is on the list due to the young girl dying and probably more so the occasional swear words.  I enjoyed the story even though it I felt it was more of a girl book.  There was pretty good insight into the world of the age group that the main characters fall in.  I really liked the grandmother and how she was the old and wise, as well as, patient and understanding of the things going on around here.  Her peacefulness is comforting.  It would be a hard thing to deal with for a 12 year old to find out that a classmate wanted to be a friend but could never be due to their death.  She is also dealing with her grandmother's frailty and realizes that the time is precious.  Some may not like the language in the book but the story is a beautiful one and I liked it. 

Review
Ellis, Sarah.(2003) Horn Book Magazine , Vol. 79 (6), p745-747 Retrieved from  Library & Information Science Source 7 Dec. 2013.
Martha opens the door. A strange woman holding an envelope announces: "Olive Barstow was my daughter." Olive, a schoolmate that Martha had barely noticed, has recently been killed in a car accident; the envelope contains an extract from Olive's diary in which she shares her dreams, including the hope that Martha, "the nicest person in my whole entire class," would become her friend. With this original and compelling opening scene Henkes draws us into one summer in the life of a familiar, convincing, fully realized twelve-year-old girl. Olive's Ocean has all the elements of a traditional summer novel: a grandmother with a house by the sea, sandcastles, Parcheesi, a summer crush, and the idea of summer as the time between, the hinge time of growth and change. 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. The crush-object turns out to have feet of clay. In other hands this might be too much material, but Henkes has a jeweler's touch, strong and delicate. All of Henkes's strengths as a fiction writer — economy, grace, humor, respect for his characters, a dramatist's eye for gesture, and an underlying good-naturedness — are given wonderful play here. In her diary Olive reveals that she dreamed of writing a book. "Not a mystery or adventure one, but an emotional one. Maybe I can make kids change their opinions on emotion books like some authors did to me." Who were those authors, we wonder. Very likely somebody just like Kevin Henkes.



Use
This would be a good booktalk due to the issues of dealing with loss and dealing with normal feelings of a preteen.