Not As We Knew It

Reviewed by: Jill O'Connor - North Yarmouth Academy, Yarmouth, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: February 15, 2017

Review

A short read for middle-grade readers that thrums with emotion. Ned and Jamie are twins. The brothers share the love for many things, Star Trek, stories, and combing the beach and tide pools of their tiny island. What they don't share is cystic fibrosis; only Ned is afflicted with this terrible disease while Jamie is perfectly healthy. During one beachcombing excursion, the two find a strange fish-like creature on the beach and bring it home to their garage. The story weaves in legends of mermaids and the pull of the ocean as the boys care for the strange, injured creature. And as Ned gets sicker and sicker. Jamie hopes that the creature is magic and brings with it a cure for Ned's illness. All of the foreshadowing of the tales pulling people into the sea to "set them free" comes to a head on a stormy night after the boys agree that it's time to set the creature free back into the ocean. Jamie finally realizes that only Ned can go on this adventure as badly as he might want to join him, or hard as he might try to stop him. A powerful read about the bonds of a family and the pain of saying goodbye and picking up the pieces and continuing to live. The book is British and has some terminology and geography that might be foreign to readers in the U.S., but the author does a great job setting the scene and explaining the situations, so this should be a minor hurdle. A lovely, moving book.

Overall Book Score: very good