Martha Boyle and Olive Barstow could have been friends. But they weren't -- and now all that is left are eerie connections between two girls who were in the same grade at school and who both kept the same secret without knowing it. Now Martha can't stop thinking about Olive. A family summer on Cape Cod should help banish those thoughts; instead, they seep in everywhere. And this year Martha's routine at her beloved grandmother's beachside house is complicated by the Manning boys. Jimmy, Tate, Todd, Luke, and Leo. But especially Jimmy. What if, what if, what if, what if? The world can change in a minute.

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Martha's classmate Olive is killed in a traffic accident. Though they weren't close, Martha can't stop thinking about her. Olive was a quiet loner type. After her death, Olive's mother makes a visit to Martha's house to share some surprising news. A page from Olive's journal was found where she revealed her biggest wish was to become good friends with Martha Boyle, "the nicest person in my whole class." She also mentions hopes of becoming a successful writer, something Martha also hopes to become one day (likely inspired by her father, a former lawyer turned aspiring novelist).

Martha ruminates on the little she knew of Olive, the quiet girl who joined her class as a new student in February, by June she was gone. Martha feels guilty that she wasn't kinder to Olive.... not that she was mean to her, but she acknowledges she could've made more of an effort to get to know her. Plagued by these thoughts, Martha hopes her annual summer trip to Grandmother Godbee's house in Cape Cod will help ease her mind a little. 

Olive's Ocean ends up being a bit of a coming of age story. Martha, just approaching her teen years, reconnects with her Cape Cod friends, the Manning brothers: Jimmy, Tate, Todd, Luke and Leo. Martha realizes she's looking at Jimmy differently now, her thoughts beginning to become more romantically minded. Unfortunately, this summer proves to be a tough one for Martha. Not only does she fixate on the finite window of one's lifetime, but she also has a painful lesson in the shady side of human behavior, where a person's outward words or actions don't always reflect their true motives.

Its got it's sad moments but it's not as heavy in tone as maybe I'm making it sound here. The pace of the plot and the short chapters make for a good quick read and Martha's story will have you thinking on a pivotal season in your own life where tough lessons came uninvited, leaving you a changed person from there on.

This story is about a sweet little girl who is named after a beautiful flower. She grew to love her name. What could go wrong? Now that this little girl is in school, she has hated her name more and more. What will happen now that she is getting laughed at for her name and what will she think about her name in the end?  Lets all pick a new name out of this jar that I have written up. Each name is a flower and I want you all to research more about the flower that you drew. After we all have our information, create a name plate for your new name with different drawings and colors that make your flower extra special. 

Lexile Level: 570L

Thirteen letters make up Chrysanthemum’s name, and her bravery is just as extraordinary! Henkes’ tale follows Chrysanthemum as she grows up with confidence, only to have it broken when she encounters teasing at school. This is a wonderful story for Kindergarten through 2nd grade, Scholastic labeling it an “M” on their guided reading scale. Not only is it great for character education, but there is also a great opportunity to integrate a math lesson by numbering off the amount of letters in students’ names!

Wemberly Worried is my absolute favorite character building book for younger grades! I think, specifically, it is a great icebreaker for the first day of school, as our protagonist spends a large part of the story worrying about her own first day! Wemberly is very relatable, and sparked a lot of personal connections with my Kindergarteners when I shared it with them last semester! Its level is K through 2nd, according to Scholastic’s Guided Reading scale. 

This would be a great book to implement in the classroom! There are so many ideas that come to mind when thinking about reading this to my kiddos. One activity that I think would be great for younger students is to break down their names into syllables, number of letters, and number of vowels, etc.. Also I feel it is important to make sure every child knows their name is perfect and picked just for them. I would love to read this to my class.

Lexile: 570L