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Strong Like the Sea

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
Even though twelve-year-old Alexis was born in Hawaii, she won't surf or swim with her friends—not since the ocean and its hidden creatures swept her out to sea. Instead, she grabs her best detective hat and decodes her mom's latest challenge.
Alex's mom works in counterintelligence and leaves codes, ciphers, and puzzles behind for Alex to solve, always with a "treasure" at the end. It's a brilliant game between them, and Alex loves figuring out her mom's puzzles—especially the tricky ones—but when an emergency at sea puts her mom in possible danger, solving the next one suddenly feels far more urgent.
Friends help as Alex races to decipher each clue before time runs out, but when the trail leads to grumpy old Uncle, his enormous dog Sarge, and a sea turtle unlike any other, the challenge changes into something bigger than any before. With storms on the horizon and lives on the line, Alex must face her fears to solve Mom's challenge and save those she loves. With her ohana to help, she must be strong like the sea.

Featuring a secret ocean code with a hidden message for YOU to decipher!
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  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      May 1, 2021
      A tween in Hawaii is challenged to overcome her fear of the ocean. Alex, 12, lives near the ocean in Laie on Oahu, but a traumatic experience has left her unwilling to set foot in the water despite her friends' coaxing. She misses her mom, an intelligence analyst on a Navy submarine, who likes to challenge Alex with fun ciphers and codes. Her latest challenge takes Alex out of her comfort zone; to solve it, she'll have to confront her fears to find the clues her mom has secreted. Alex's busy, mainland-born dad and the Japanese American Tanakas--her mother's hānai, or informal adoptive parents--provide occasional clues, but Alex must work out the answers. While the remarkable Hawaiian landscape, flora and fauna, and cultural features (racial and ethnic particulars excepted) are exhaustively and accurately detailed, the story falls flat. Alex is more tour guide than protagonist, translating Hawaiian and Pidgin words for nonlocal readers and slowing the action to describe or explain points of interest. With four wise adults guiding her, she's seldom at a loss, and it's her desperate struggles alone in the powerful ocean that make readers care. With details unspecified, Alex and her family read as White. The real star of this didactic tale is its alluring setting. (author's note, codes for chapters) (Fiction. 8-12)

      COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Booklist

      May 1, 2021
      Grades 4-7 Swore packs this story about a curious, competitive girl full of moving themes and vivid imagery, and they fit together as neatly as a puzzle box. Alex, 12, lives in Laie on the island of Oahu. Her father teaches high-school math and is a scuba diving instructor, and her mother is a civilian intelligence contractor for the navy and spends a great deal of her time working on a submarine. In her absence, she leaves Alex elaborate puzzles to solve, often recruiting family and friends to hide ciphers and clues (many of which are included in the text). The challenging puzzles range all over Laie, although retrieving some of the clues requires her to struggle with her deep fear of the ocean. When her mother's sub goes silent, Alex's resiliency, strong--mindedness, and intelligence carry her through her worries. Though references to Hawaiian culture and dialects occasionally feel shoehorned in, Swore's descriptions of Alex's anxieties and drive to solve her mother's puzzles ring true, and elements of mystery, ecology, and personal growth give this tightly constructed novel plenty of appeal.

      COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • School Library Journal

      May 14, 2021

      Gr 4-6-Alexis lives in Hawaii with her mother, who is often gone working as a contractor for the navy and cannot always divulge her location to her daughter. In her absence, Alexis's mom leaves cryptic and exciting puzzles for her to solve, as a special activity at the end. But when something happens and her mom might be in danger, Alexis must solve an impossible puzzle and overcome her deep fear of the very thing surrounding her home-the sea. This exciting story features lush descriptions of Hawaii. Short chapters move the plot along at a reasonable pace for younger readers while still giving enough drama and detail for more seasoned fans of realistic fiction. The book also features a hidden code for readers to solve on their own, reminiscent of the ciphers Alexis decodes in the novel. Alexis is cued as white. VERDICT With an intriguing mystery and themes of family (both found and blood) at its heart, this is a good purchase for libraries where juvenile adventure stories and Swore's other works are popular.-Molly Dettmann, Norman North H.S., OK

      Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
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Languages

  • English

Levels

  • ATOS Level:5
  • Interest Level:4-8(MG)
  • Text Difficulty:3-4

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