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INTERMEDIATE FICTION
McDunn, Gillian

When Sea Becomes Sky

288 pp. | Bloomsbury | February, 2023 | Trade ISBN 978-1-5476-1085-3 $16.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-1-5476-1086-0 $11.89
(2) 4-6 Bex dreams of becoming a writer, and usually the words flow from her pencil. But not this summer; now she has more erasures than words. Her younger brother, Davey, gives Bex some advice: "Writers must tell the truth thoroughly, constantly, and recklessly. Do that and the words will come." It's advice Bex appears to follow as she describes how she and Davey find a mysterious statue near their home in the North Carolina salt marsh. For years, it had been covered by a river (a body of water Davey will not enter but dubs the River Sticks), but it is now increasingly visible as the water recedes during a serious drought. Bex decides on the perfect summer plan: the two of them will discover the statue's provenance. Their exclusivity makes sense, as Davey appears to be selectively mute around everyone but Bex and she's had a falling-out with her best friend. However, a sudden revelation midway through the novel shatters that presumed truth-telling. McDunn (Honestly Elliott, rev. 3/22) has written a story that the character of Davey would want to read: "This book starts happy, gets sad, and then at the end, it's happy and sad mixed up together. That's what makes it special, that it has both."
Reviewer: Betty Carter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2023

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