Olive's Ocean

Kevin Henkes has such a beautiful way of writing stories. In Olive's Ocean, Olive Barstow had passed away a week before her mother showed up on Martha Boyle’s doorstep to deliver her a page from Olive’s journal. In the entry Martha reads of Olive’s wish to have been friends with Martha, and finds out they had more in common than she could have ever imagined. I loved that the character of Martha was so mature for her 12 years of age. Although, it had your typical coming-of-age theme, the relationships Martha has over the course of her summer shows a much different side of adolescents.