Olive's Ocean

Redo due to corrections.

Summary

One of the books I choose to read for module seven was Olive’s Ocean by Kevin Henkes. The protagonist in this story is a twelve year old pre-teen, names Martha, and she is dealing with guilt over not being a friend to a girl in her school that was different. Olive a few weeks early had been killed by a car on while riding her bicycle. Olive’s mother comes by to give her something Olive had written her and she mentioned Martha was the nicest girl in school. Martha goes with her family to visit her grandmother, Godbee, on Cape Cod for the month of August. As Martha shares things with her grandmother she reveals the similar angst of every pre-teen, boys, family, Godbee’s old age and future death. Martha and Godbee have a very strong connection and Martha confides in Godbee often. Martha experiences a life altering experience by almost drowning and realizes how fragile life is. Martha looks at life differently and writes down things in her journal to trace her life and hopefully become a writer.

Impressions

I enjoyed the book I did find it a little depressing at times, but sometimes being twelve is depressing. I did like the relationship between Martha and Godbee because that closeness reminded me of my grandmother (Gamma). Gamma was and is, always there for us to lend an ear and help us with or problems even just to listen. This book was also a Newbery winner.

Review from customers on Amazon.com by Lisa Johannes

Twelve-year-old Olive Barstow has died in a car accident. No one in the neighborhood knew her, and none of the kids at school remember much about her except that she was a little weird. But thoughts of Olive haunt Martha, and she has a hard time thinking of anything but the death of this unknown classmate, a girl her own age with hauntingly similar aspirations.

For young adult readers, this book is a powerful look at the affirmation of life and the mysteries of death. Olive is completely unknown to us, yet thoughts about what her life could have been permeate the thoughts, movements, and actions of our protagonist.

This is a clever look at how the life of another can add dimension to our own existence. Family relationships are written candidly and realistically. It's impossible not to love Martha from the beginning of the story when she wishes a good morning to her two-year-old sister until the end of the book when she resolves to be the person she wants to be.

This book is a far cry from Kevin Henkes picture books about little mice, yet it carries the same beautiful messages about life and family and friends.

A Kid's Review from Amazon.com

Olive's Ocean is one of the best books I have ever read. I could relate to it very well. It's about a girl named Martha who goes to New England to spend time with her Godbee (grandmother). While she's there, she starts crushing on Jimmy Manning, but realizes that he doesn't really care about other people's feelings, just his camera. She's also trying to spend as much time with her Godbee as she can, because she knows that this may be the last summer she has with her. When all of this is happening, she is also learning to cope with the loss of a girl who went to her school, but was killed when she was hit by a car. Martha has a hard time getting her hands around the whole situation.
One of the characters in the book is Martha, she's the main character. She's dealing with the hardships, and good times of growing up. There's also Godbee. Martha loves Godbee, and learns a lot from her. She really enjoys spending time with her. Godbee is a very peaceful kind of a person, who loves life and loves being near the ocean. She also enjoys spending time with her family. Then there's Jimmy Manning. Jimmy Manning is the boy that Martha had the crush on in the beginning of the book, but definitely not in the second half of the book. He's making a movie, and uses Martha in it, Martha realizes that he's only using her in the movie though. There's also Tate, Tate is Jimmy Manning's younger brother. Tate is Martha's age, and can sometimes be a little jealous of Jimmy Manning.
I would definitely recommend this book because you can really relate to all the characters in the book, and it teaches you about life and how you should be happy for what you have. You also realize what it's like to be a teenager and what one has to go through. I liked it because I could relate to it. Every summer around the fourth of July my grandparents get a cottage on the ocean, we all go out there to the beach and hang out. After that, we go to the farm where all my relatives are. We all have a lot of fun and enjoy spending time together. This reminds me a lot of when Martha goes and visits Godbee. There were lots of surprises with what happened with Jimmy Manning and staying at the ocean that surprised me. I enjoyed reading about them. I also liked the style of writing, it was very easy to understand at my age and it flowed very easily which I liked. I think that girls would enjoy this book more because it's from their point of view, and girls would understand Martha more I think. It's a very good realistic fiction book, which is my favorite genre so I also enjoyed that. I would definitely recommend it.

Lesson

I don’t think I would do a lesson with this book unless it was to discuss issues taking place in a classroom, for instance treating others with kindness. I would recommend the book to any student it delves into things taking place with teens today. The thought of dying is in the back of their minds, but they think they are invincible.