Jasmine's First Review

Sand Dollar Summer
By Kimberly K Jones
Reviewed by Jasmine Brown

The book Sand Dollar Summer is about a young 12 year old girl named Lise. Lise and her five year old brother, Free (a brother that hasn’t spoke), were normally the first ones to get picked up from school by their hard working, single, stay at home mom. One day, though, they lost track of time and realized that their mom was extremely late. Their teacher brought them home, and then their neighbor took care of them. That afternoon, a police officer showed up at the house and told them that their mother had been in a car accident.

Annalise (Lise’s mother) was badly injured, and it would take several months for her to recover. Lise and Free snuck out of the house and saw their mother at the hospital. She had broken legs, a broken arm, well I guess you could say that she was basically broken all over.

Annalise thought that a vacation would be a good idea. Annalise and the kids took a vacation to Fiddle Beach. Fiddle Beach is an island off the coast of Maine. As they arrive there, they find that they are going to be staying in a tiny shack for the whole summer.

When Lise swims in the ocean for the first time, the thought of something lurking in the deep dark ocean waters, something that could possibly kill her, makes Lise think badly about the ocean. When she swims in the water for the first time, she realizes that it is very cold and that she does not want to spend her summer with her body being numb.

Lise never adjusts to the cold numbing sensation of the ocean water, until the horrifying hurricane. Lise in that awful weather to save her very nice friend Ben (part of the Passamaquoddy tribe). As the waves rose bigger and the ocean roared, the more danger Lise was in. When Ben’s house was starting to appear, she noticed a light left on inside and a man sitting in a chair holding on for dear life. As the house started to float away, Lise wanted to save Ben (the old man) even more. Yet she knew that nothing could save him. Lise was very close to drowning when her dog showed up next to her, dragging her to shore.

My two favorite quotes from this book are, “Don’t ever doubt that a mere second can change your life forever” (front cover) . . . and . . . “The sea gives, and the sea takes away. The sea gave me a great deal, but fickle as it is, it tried to steal it back, and nearly me with it” (back cover), and “It’s easy to convince yourself that you’re right, when really you’re just being selfish” (201).

I really liked this book, and it didn’t take me long to read it. I would recommend this book to grades sixth through eighth. I think that it’s a little too easy for high-schoolers, and it might even be a little too hard for fifth grade to be reading. This book was great, and if I were to rate this book from a one to five, then I would probably rate this a four. Read this book to find out what happens to Lise and her family.