Lauren Wolk’s Beyond the Bright Sea is a quiet, gripping island story for 11 year olds about a girl who washed up on an island when she was a newborn and wants to know why.<\/p>\n
Crow was only hours old when someone tied her into a leaky old skiff and pushed it out to sea. It fetched up on a tiny island off New England, where a man called Osh went out for his breakfast fish and found her instead.<\/p>\n
He kept her. Twelve years later they still live there together, in a cottage he built from bits of shipwrecks, with a skinny cat called Mouse. Their one real friend is Miss Maggie on the next island, who scolds everyone, tells the truth and makes the best soup on the islands.<\/p>\n
It sounds idyllic, and a lot of it is. But the people on the next island won’t come near Crow. They wave at her rather than shake her hand. When she finally tries school, a boy calls her a leper and the teacher wipes the door latch after she leaves.<\/p>\n
They think she came from Penikese, a nearby island that used to be a hospital for people with leprosy. Crow doesn’t know if they’re right. Nobody does.<\/p>\n
Then one night she sees a fire burning out on Penikese, where nobody ever goes. And she decides, on her own, that it’s time to find out where she came from.<\/p>\n
This is a book to sink into slowly. Crow tells it herself and she notices everything, from the pearls in some oysters but not others to the sound porridge makes landing in a bowl. The writing is gorgeous, but it never gets in the way of the story.<\/p>\n
What really gets you is how much she loves Osh and how much she still needs to know. He’d rather she stopped asking. She can’t (would you?).<\/p>\n
Worth knowing before you hand it over. The way the islanders treat Crow is unkind and it’s described plainly, from the name-calling to the fear of touching her. Leprosy is talked about honestly too, including what it does to people’s bodies. A sensitive reader might find those pages upsetting.<\/p>\n
If your reader loves a slow, thoughtful story with a mystery at its heart, this is a real treat. Crow even hints early on that treasure is waiting for her somewhere (and that she’ll find it where nobody else would dare to look).<\/p>\n
If this one goes down well, try Echo Mountain by the same author. Ellie’s family has lost everything and moved up into the wild woods, and a newborn puppy everyone thinks is dead is the first life she saves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lauren Wolk’s Beyond the Bright Sea is a quiet, gripping island story for 11 year olds about a girl who washed up on an island when she was a newborn and wants to know why. Crow was only hours old when someone tied her into a leaky old skiff and pushed it out to sea. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12999,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":7310,"lr_next_read_anchor":"Echo Mountain","lr_seo_hook":"A girl raised on a tiny island sets out to learn who sent her out to sea."},"book_tag":[1045],"age_group":[28],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[605],"class_list":["post-6941","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-adventure-books","age_group-books-for-11-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-lauren-wolk"],"yoast_title":"Beyond the Bright Sea by Lauren Wolk | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"A girl raised on a tiny island sets out to learn who sent her out to sea. For ages 11+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n