From: Beth Wright <bethlibrarian>
Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2003 11:21:40 -0800 (PST)

I know Olive's Ocean by Kevin Henkes has been mentioned already on this listserv. It was my favorite novel this year as well. I'm a perennial fan of his books; in this one it was the exceptionally well-done connections between character and plot that stood out for me. Martha, the protagonist, wants to be a writer, and that part of her character shapes how she observes and acts throughout the story. Her immediate bond to Olive comes because Olive, too, had wanted to write. Martha's conflict with her father surfaces in her uneasiness about "copying" his dream of writing a novel. Her thoughts and observations show a writer's gift for detail: the "glittery feeling" she embraces in the airport, her description of the worn surfaces of Godbee's Parcheesi game, her body going "soupy" when Jimmy asks if she's ever been kissed. Most affecting for me were Martha's two gestures in memory of Olive, both perfectly in keeping with her character: she writes out Olive's name, first in chalk and then, at the end of the story, in disappearing seawater as she says goodbye.

My two favorite picture books were Mordicai Gerstein's The Man Who Walked Between the Towers, for fitting a quarter-mile of height and awe into 8 1/4 by 11 1/4 inches, and Doreen Cronin and Harry Bliss' Diary of a Worm, for making an extremely funny story out of bait.

Beth Wright Youth Services Librarian Fletcher Free Library Burlington, Vermont bethlibrarian at yahoo.com



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Received on Tue 02 Dec 2003 01:21:40 PM CST