There are plenty of adoption-themed picture books, but fewer stories for the “tween” or early teen-age crowd. (Two others which I have reviewed are Kimchi and Calamari and The Handle and the Key.)
The Ocean Within and its sequel, Tides, are a worthy addition to this small but growing body of stories. The Ocean Within bears some similarities to The Handle and the Key in that it gives readers a feel for the point of view of a child being adopted from the foster care system.
In The Ocean Within, eleven-year-old Elizabeth has been in foster care for six years following the death of her parents. She has been in multiple foster homes, and lived with one family who planned to adopt her and then changed their minds. When Kevin and Karen seek to adopt her, Elizabeth has no reason to believe them that this placement will be permanent.
However, Elizabeth has always dreamed of seeing the ocean—and Kevin and Karen’s children spend a month at the coast each summer with their grandmother and cousins. Elizabeth agrees to the placement—sure that she will be sent back, but determined to hold on until she realizes her dream of seeing the ocean.
The book opens with Elizabeth’s introduction to the noisy clan of eight Sheridan cousins who gather with their firm but loving grandmother, whom Elizabeth dubs Iron Woman. The cousins are eager to welcome Elizabeth to their family life and hurt when she keeps herself aloof. But the author, V.M. Caldwell, does a good job of letting the reader know Elizabeth’s thoughts.
Elizabeth’s years in foster care have given her the goal of staying invisible. She is used to sharing space, but experiences this family’s constant questions and traditions–such as sharing report cards—incredibly intrusive. Elizabeth’s mantra is, “Do as you’re told. Speak as little as possible. Don’t let them know what you care about.”
The author’s strength is in making all the characters sympathetic: we understand how Elizabeth is honestly bewildered by family life. For example, she honestly hasn’t considered that wandering off would make anyone worry about her, and she tells four-year-old Petey that he shouldn’t like her. She fears that that Petey will be hurt when the summer is over if he becomes attached to her. Petey sees her comment as a rejection and she cannot understand why he is hysterical and why the other cousins think she is incredibly cruel.
Tides is the sequel to The Ocean Within. The cousins return to their grandmother’s the following July. Elizabeth has by now been completely adopted. Her cousin Adam has turned 18 and finished high school, after nearly a terrible depression when his friends are killed by a drunk driver. Other cousins are experiencing trouble, some for the first time. Adam withdraws from the zany but happy traditions of his family, but Elizabeth’s past experience as an outsider has struck a chord with Adam, and she—whom Adam spent the previous summer being furious at—now becomes his tenuous link to the family and a very central person in it.