Fern's best friend, Ivy, didn't even call when she returned from her trip abroad. When Fern goes to her house to welcome her home, Ivy has two other friends with her, both of which had slept over. As Fern feels her best friend slipping away, she makes an uneasy treaty with the boy next door, Jasper, whose family owns a whale watching boat in direct competition with her family's whale watching business. The new allies enter a nature photography competition together. They want to get a picture of the dwindling Killer Whale pod that lives in the ocean near their town. As the summer progresses there are joys and disappointments as Fern mourns her lost friendship with Ivy, makes a new friend in Jasper, and wrestles with her grief over her father who died two years earlier.
This is by the same author who wrote the Emily Wilde series I read. When I checked it out I expected it to be a YA fantasy, but it is a middle grade coming-of-age realistic fiction. There are a couple of almost fantasy elements, but the reader is left to decide whether they really happened or if they were products of Fern's psychological distress and grief. The book is well written and, as I listened to it, I could imagine the 5th graders in the classes where I substitute, acting like Fern and Jasper. They are very authentic and sympathetic 10-year-olds. The "save the whales" element is not over done, and gives the book a little more depth and relevance, while the families of both protagonists are refreshingly nurturing. (192 p. 2025)
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