Between the Lighthouse and You
by Michelle Lee
Intermediate    Farrar    192 pp.    g
1/22    978-0-374-31450-7    $16.99
e-book ed.  978-0-374-31451-4    $9.99

Six years ago, Alice’s mother, a cultural anthropologist, disappeared in a boating accident near Aviles Island off the coast of Florida. Now twelve, Alice pores over her mom’s books and notes, looking for clues and hope, while her father and younger sister contend with grief in their own ways. Alice desperately wants to learn more about the island’s tradition of “tidings,” or communications with the dead, that her mother was studying when she disappeared, and she pushes for a trip to Aviles Island. Her father plans to interview the Mercury family, the island’s lighthouse keepers, for his radio show; Alice sets her sights on finding out more about the tidings. The story alternates between the first-person narratives of Alice and the Mercury family’s oldest son, Leo, who’s protective of the island’s traditions in memory of his beloved grandfather. Alice and Leo have an antagonistic relationship at first, but an unusual tidings message causes them to join forces. Over the course of a weekend on the island, the tidings come and go, the Jones family members finally begin to process their grief, and a risky boat trip nearly finds history repeating itself. A few of the story’s fantastical elements (as well as some of its realistic ones) may rankle some skeptical readers, but the narrative’s heart and energy, as well as its portrayal of the many ways one can be isolated and paralyzed by grief, feel true and meaningful.

From the March/April 2022 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.