Between Sea and Sky

Nicola Penfold's Between Sea and Sky is a near-future adventure for 10 year olds, set in a flooded bay where a girl from the sea and a boy from the land are about to meet.

What happens

Pearl's home is an oyster farm that floats out in the bay, and she shares it with her dad and her little sister Clover. Their mum died five years ago and Pearl won't go ashore at all. She's sure the poisoned ground is what made Mum ill.

Clover wants the exact opposite. She's ten, bored silly, and desperate to go to the compound school and make proper friends (people, not porpoises!).

Then there's Nat. He lives in a crumbling concrete block on stilts, where the grown-ups work shifts in a giant growing tower and a board by the door lists every family's points for breaking the rules.

Out on a dare at a haunted windmill, Nat watches two workers gathering something from the thistles. What they miss, he wraps up in his red flag and takes home. Tiny black caterpillars. In a world where the butterflies disappeared long ago, that's a very big secret.

And then Pearl's dad announces that a scientist from the mainland is coming to stay for the summer. With her son. Pearl is horrified (Clover can't wait).

So what's it like to read? The sea chapters are gorgeous. Mudlarking for treasure when the tide goes out, diving down to the oyster cages, a porpoise called Grey who nudges Clover for fish. Nat's chapters feel tighter and more watchful, full of rules, points and friends daring each other into trouble.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

There's a lot of loss in this one. Pearl's mum has already died when the story starts. Nat's friend Tally lost her mum too, and then her baby brother was taken away because families aren't allowed a second child. Nat's dare also comes with a local ghost story about a boy who died on the windmill sails.

A sensitive reader might want to share the first few chapters with you. For a child who loves a big what-if about the planet's future, it's a very absorbing read.

What to read next

If this one goes down well, Where the World Turns Wild is by the same author. Juniper and her little brother Bear live in a walled city where trees, flowers and animals are all banned, while outside the walls the Wild grows wilder every year.