Reviews - Olive's Ocean | The StoryGraph

192 reviews for:

I have a personal connection to this book, I picked it up from my high school library in year 7, and spent the 2 week school break hold up in my room reading it. It was my escape from life and also one of the reasons that day became one of the worst days of my childhood.
But I hold this book dear to me, and I hope that I'll find it again one day, because I can barely remember what happens.

All I know is that every character I thought up since then has been based off Olive.

rpow's review against another edition

3.0

lighthearted fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

amhayes's review against another edition

2.0

Olive's Ocean by Kevin Henkes was chosen for my fiction Newbery category. Olive's Ocean is a good juvenile story about loss and finding yourself. The book starts out with Martha getting a letter from Olive's mother. Olive has just died when she got hit by a car and Olive writes in the letter that she wishes she were closer to Martha since she is the nicest friend she knows. Martha finds this surprising because she doesn't know Olive very well. Martha goes to visit her grandmother Godbee for the summer with her family and she goes through a sort of transformation process, finding a boy that she thinks likes her and he betrays her and then one of the other brothers comes along and he actually likes her. All the while Martha is gaining knowledge from Godbee and she wants to spend as much time with her before she is gone. At the same time Martha is trying to figure out something that will be symbolic of Olive and her life.

I was a little surprised when I realized that this is the same author of Lilly's purple plastic purse, and was enthralled with his writing style for juvenile stories versus his picture books.

thebrookelist's review against another edition

3.0

Interesting coming-of-age story for a young girl, spending summer away at the beach. Interesting family relationships and death of a lonely classmate that affects her in a unique way. Not my favorite Newberry. I'm sure I would have liked it as a teen, and it had some beautiful writing, but also has some challenging moments for the age group. Refers to sex in one part, but is mild overall. Might read with a 12-year-old daughter to start a dialogue and self edit, but otherwise don't really recommend. Wish they had done more to develop her Olive's story - the classmate who does in the opening.