Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

2004 Newbery Honor Book

Ratings Explanation

Language: Several common swear words and two heavier swear words. Martha’s dad shows his temper occasionally.

Violence: Martha recalls seeing Olive hit by a car and watching her body slide across the road then lying lifeless. Lobsters are boiled to death.

Sexual Content: Martha’s brother comments on his parents MSB (morning sexual behavior), stating that he can tell when his parents “do it” by the way they act around each other afterward. Martha holds hands with her brother’s friend. She has a major crush on him. Martha receives her first kiss from him, but he kisses her only to record on video tape and show off to his brothers and friends. She is embarrassed and hurt.

Adult Content: Martha is dealing with the tragic death of her classmate. She feels somewhat responsible to make it up to the girl’s mother because of a journal entry Olive left behind. Martha realizes that her grandma won’t be around for ever. It is difficult for her to imagine life without her. Coming of age type situations.

Synopsis

Shortly after her classmate Olive’s tragic death, Martha receives a journal entry from the girl’s mother. The entry includes Olive’s feelings about becoming a writer, wanting to visit the ocean and her desire to become friends with Martha. Martha is stunned. She never knew Olive well. Olive was quiet and kept to herself. Martha is also surprised that Olive wanted to become a writer because, secretly, Martha has wanted to do the same thing herself. The similarities in their lives haunt her. Shortly after this, Martha and her family leave for the Oregon coast to visit her grandmother for a few weeks. Martha tries to put Olive’s journal entry out of her mind and enjoy the vacation. Her grandmother’s neighbors are a family of boys, and she is curious to see if they have grown any cuter during the past year. When she finally gets to their house, Martha notices one boy in particular who has certainly changed for the better over the past few months. Martha finds excuses to visit the neighbor’s house, hoping to see him. To Martha’s delight, the boy ends up asking her to help him with a movie project he is working on about life and death. She, of course, agrees and they spend their days filming. One day, he invites her to a secluded barn where he sets up his camera. He tells Martha to stand still while he adjusts his camera. Then he walks up close to her and kisses her. Life couldn’t be better. That is until she finds out that he bet his brothers that he could get her to kiss him before the end of the day. It was not a kiss of love. Martha is totally crushed but doesn’t want to tell her family. The only thing that seems to distract her thoughts from her embarrassment is Olive. She remembers how much she wanted to go the the ocean, the very ocean she was vacationing at. Martha comes up with an idea that will bring Olive her ocean and peace to Martha’s heart.

I was excited to read this Newbery Honor Book. I love Kevin Henkes’s Wemberly Worried for children. The story line of trying to figure out how to reconcile yourself with such a premature death was touching. It brought back memories of when our school lost a student to a similar fate. I enjoyed seeing how Martha was able to find peace from the accident and overcome a broken heart. I wish the author would have developed the relationship with her grandmother more. She was such a source of stability to Martha in the book and I would like to have seen it play a more important role. Idid feel that there was a lot of swearing in this book for the recommended audience (10 years old and up).