Wolk, Lauren.
BEYOND THE BRIGHT SEA
New York : Dutton Children's Books, 2017
IL 5-8, RL 4.0
ISBN 9781101994856

(4 booktalks)

Booktalk #1

Crow has only known life on the island with Osh. She was a newborn when she was placed in a basket and set adrift and landed on the shores of the Elizabeth Islands. Osh found her and has raised her as his own. It has just been the two of them. And Maggie, a neighbor who has helped. People believe Crow came from Penikese Island, a leper colony.  No one wants Crow around. They are afraid that she is also a leper even though it has been years and she has shown no signs of the illness. The leper colony was moved years ago and now the island has been opened to the public. A conservation scientist is scheduled to move to the island to keep track of the wildlife. But something is strange about him. He seems to be spending more time digging holes than counting birds. This leads to a mystery that involves Crow and her origins. Come long with her as she searches for her roots.

Booktalk #2

Twelve-year-old Crow and her adoptive father, Osh, an artist, live in a cottage pieced together from shipwrecks on one of the Elizabeth Islands off the coast of Massachusetts in the 1920s. Crow is loved by Osh and by Miss Maggie, their fierce and independent neighbor on the neighboring island of Cuttyhunk, but is shunned by the other islanders. As Crow begins to wonder about her history and heritage, she uncovers increasingly dangerous secrets. Why are their lights on abandoned Penikese Island? Why was Crow sent to sea in a boat as a baby? Who were her parents? Is there really buried treasure on Penikese? And, ultimately, Crow discovers what means the most to her.   (Vermont DCF Award nominee, 2018-2019)

Booktalk #3

This powerful historical fiction story is about Crow, a 12-year-old girl, who tries to find information about her past. All Crow knows is that she washed ashore on this isolated rural island in 1925--just hours after she was born. Crow braves the hostility and fear from the local islanders as they’re afraid she is from a nearby island that housed a leper colony. (Lepers are people with leprosy, an infectious disease that causes severe scarring skin sores and nerve damage.) Luckily, Crow was found by a reclusive man named Osh who has raised her with the help of the stubborn, but loving, Miss Maggie. Crow’s quest into her past takes her on a dangerous journey that threatens all she holds dear and sends ripples across her island home and changes her life forever.  (Sherri Ashlock, Nelsen Middle School  https://evergreenbookaward.org/)

Booktalk #4

What would you do in Crow’s position? On one hand, you could stay safe in your decent life, and never know who your biological parents are. Or you could take a risk and maybe find a whole new family. And when she hears a thump in a building on an abandoned island, will she ignore it, or potentially save a life? Can she save everyone and stay safe? Or will she lose it all in search of a family, only to find her real family was with her all along? (Prepared by: Samantha Finkenberg, Cario Middle School, finsam5260@ccsdschools.com for South Carolina Book Award)