Second Star.

Sheinmel, Alyssa B.  Second Star.  Macmillan/Farrar Strauss  2014  250p  $17.99  ISBN 978-0-374-38267-4  hs   Realistic fiction     VG-BN

This is a unique story of grief, loss and love that pays homage to the classic Peter Pan story of lost boys.  Wendy refuses to accept that the disappearance of her twin brothers while surfing means they are dead.  Her parents have accepted the police report that the brothers could not have survived the wave that washed up their broken surf boards many months ago. Wendy adopts a mission to find her brothers before summer’s end.  She encounters Pete who lives in an abandoned house on the ocean with a few other surfer dudes.  A rival surfer, Jas, has taken over a neighboring house but is known to sell a heady drug named “dust” to surfers.  Wendy’s loyalties and love switch from Pete to Jas as she travels the coastline looking for people who may have known her brothers.  The joy of surfing, its dangers and its vagabond lifestyle, and the camaraderie among those who follow the waves are eloquently described.  When Wendy wakes up in a psych ward, she finally accepts that Pete and Jas and their crew were a figment of her imagination, and she becomes grounded enough to start her freshman year at Stanford.  The readers are immersed in her anguished mental state throughout the novel and share her hopes and fears.  The ending is totally unexpected and yet satisfying.  The line between reality and fantasy has never been more narrow.

Summary: After two brothers disappear while surfing, their sister, Wendy, goes in search of them.  While searching, she meets surfers Pete, Belle, and Jas. She comes to wonder if they are hallucinations or if they were real.  Part fantasy, part realistic novel. Gr. 8-12.               

Grief-Fiction, Surfing-Fiction, Peter Pan-Fiction           --Lois McNicol

Ross, Jeff. Dawn Patrol.

Ross, Jeff. Dawn Patrol.     Orca  146p  $9.95 978-1-4598-0062-5       ms/hs Series: On the Court With, Orca Sports    Good           

Esme and Luca go to Panama to find their friend who went AWOL when his parents were killed in a plane crash there.  There is conflict for Esme and Luca at every turn, especially when they finally meet up with their lost friend.  Jeff Ross’s descriptions of surfing create a memorable moment for young readers.  They can feel the surfer navigate the waves, thanks to Ross’s own experience with other board sports and his descriptive writing ability.  However, the plot is good, but not stellar.  There are some gaps in the plot line that will leave readers asking such questions as, "Why would a young man believe a beach bum/former surfer who makes such an outrageous claim that Kevin’s parents are alive, when the plane crash was undoubtedly so severe that it left wreckage that was burned beyond belief?"  That being said, the book has enough action and surfing excitement to attract students who otherwise might not pick up a book with a surfer on the cover. 

When Esme’s boyfriend disappears following the death of his parents, Esme teams up with longtime friend Luca to travel to Bocas del Mar, an island off the coast of Panama.  Waves that reach heights of 50 feet attract surfers from all over the world, and it is during Luca’s dangerous struggle with a wave and a coral reef that Kevin’s whereabouts are revealed to him.  Kevin was one of his rescuers, but he quickly disappears into the background.  Then Esme and Luca team up with the lovely Alana, and together, they face nasty islanders who do not like surfers, the beach bum who is tricking Kevin out of his parents’ life insurance, and coral reefs and dangerous rocks that could take out even the most experienced surfer.  There is definitely enough action to keep a reader’s attention, and Orca’s claim to fame is that its books are almost always fast-paced and interesting.

Note the spelling error on page 114.   "Delgado’s" was misspelled at the top of the page.

Mystery, Adventure, Surfing-Fiction             --Martha Squaresky