Sarno (Just Under the Clouds) packs this deeply affecting novel with honest emotion. Propelled by authentic characters, the adroitly woven plot meshes past and present, dreams and reality, and love and friendship. Set in a seaside resort town where only the year-rounders remain as fall approaches, the story is narrated by 12-year-old Summer, whose adoptive mother, Lindy, found her alone at water's edge a decade earlier, wearing a shell necklace. The ocean itself becomes a compelling character, at once calming and menacing, leaving shells on the beach that Summer vigilantly collects, yet abruptly catching her in a riptide. A keeper of long-held secrets, the sea also inspires Summer's unsettlingly realistic dreams, told in installments and starring a girl called Tink (and always ending "with me inside the ocean. With the ocean inside me"), which she hopes hold a clue to her identity. Like the adolescents in her dreams, Summer grapples with disconcerting changes, including Lindy's new live-in beau, who upsets the familial status quo. Though the exploration of Lindy's provenance through dreams sometimes fails to land, the volume remains an involving, bracing summer tale for all seasons. Ages 8--12. Agent: Rebecca Stead, the Book Group. (Aug.)

Gr 3--7--Twelve-year-old Summer is discovering two things--the ocean has secrets, and change can be hard. Summer has lived by the ocean with Lindy as long as she can remember, ever since Lindy found the then two-year-old Summer washed up on the shore and adopted her. Now Summer's familiar life is being disrupted. Lindy wants her annoying boyfriend to move in with them, things seem different at school, and Summer's best friend Jeremiah's secretive father has suddenly shown up, warning Jeremiah to stay away from Summer. Most disturbing is the series of puzzling dreams that Summer has about a mysterious girl and her evolving relationships with her friends and sister; somehow, they seem to be connected to ocean. Jessica Almasy narrates and handles the first-person narrative and intricately plotted storyline with ease. Her youthful voice lends immediacy to the narrative, and she guides the dream sequences with the proper touch of magical realism. The author treats the ocean and its tides as a secondary character and Almasy's performance immerses the listeners in the coastal setting. VERDICT Thoughtful middle grade listeners will enjoy this moving story.--Julie Paladino, formerly with East Chapel Hill High School, Chapel Hill, NC

In this story of a change-averse preteen, the restless interplay between moon and sea becomes a framework for exploring the uneasy intertidal zone between childhood and adult maturity.Ten years ago her adoptive mother, Lindy, found Summer, now 12, alone on the beach. Their tight bond is tested when Lindy invites her boyfriend to move into their oceanfront home, causing Summer to passively resist the new normal. A reckless, solo swim triggers Summer's vivid dream about a strange girl: Tink, another out-of-sorts adolescent. Observing grown-up thrills and heartaches from the child side of the divide, Tink feels abandoned by her older sister and disgusted at how her friends have coupled up. When a second dream follows a kayak spill, Summer recognizes that seawater prompts them and actively seeks them. Like Tink, she feels pushed out. Heightening Summer's dislocation is the desire to know her own storywho left her on the beach? Why? The discovery that her detailed dreams reflect actual places and events prompts her to seek more. Awkwardly straddling fantasy and realism, plot twists don't always persuade. How adoptees relate to their origins merits more thoughtful treatment. However, Summer and Tink are compelling, the unsettling surges of adolescence tugging at each enhanced by the evocative ocean setting and imagery. Characters default to white.How preteen girls negotiate this supremely trying life passage is explored in some of the year's best middle-grade releases; add this to the list. (Fiction. 8-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.