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Tuesday, December 10, 2019

The Line Tender, by Kate Allen. Dutton, Penguin Random House. 2019. $23.99 ages 10 and up

"She died," he said. He rubbed my
back with one hand and covered
his eyes with the other. I felt like the
air was stuck in my chest, half used.
Sometimes I wonder why Mr.
Patterson broke the news instead
of my dad, but when my mom
collapsed on the boat things stopped
happening in the usual way. She didn't
finish her research. She didn't come
home for a late dinner. She didn't
come home at all."

This debut novel is a beautiful thing. I devoured it in one sitting, and wanted to go right back and read it again. Lucy's biologist mother died when she was 7. Now, five years later in 1997, she finds herself thinking about her even more than she usually does. Her mother had a passion for sharks, and a great white has just been snagged by a local fisherman near Lucy's home in Rockport, Massachusetts. It is unusual to find them near Cape Cod.

Lucy's first person voice brings clarity to everything that is happening during a summer that holds incomprehensible grief and a lot of learning. She and her best friend Fred are doing a summer project for school - a field guide to the animals they find as they spend their summer outdoors. Fred does the writing, Lucy does the illustrations. The local fisherman is a family friend. Her father is a police diver. Their lives have much to do with the ocean that plays an integral part daily.

The discovery of  the shark makes the news, and Lucy sees an old video of her mother who was a well-known expert. Lucy wants to know more. She and Fred find her mother's research materials, and keep working on their field guide. One night, a terrible accident at the quarry where friends are swimming results in a death. Lucy's father recovers the body; the entire community plunges into  unbearable grief once again.

Lucy's need to do further research concerning the anatomy of the shark and her tenacity to get everything just right, plays out as a way to honor those she has lost and dearly misses. There is such a clear sense of setting, a very strong cast of characters, a good deal of humor in Lucy's narration, absorbing facts about marine life, and a promise that the heart will heal.

Auspicious, brilliantly written and so realistic, you don't want to miss Lucy's story.

“All life is interconnected. If one species moves away or becomes extinct, the order shifts.”

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