The Ocean in My Ears

Gr 9 Up—Like many teen girls, Meri spends her senior year worrying about college admissions, hoping to get away from her small Alaskan town, and falling in love and lust with boys. However, there ends up being a lot more than partying and studying going on as she faces teen pregnancy, drug and alcohol use, accidents, and even death. This book movingly presents a pivotal year in a teenager's life. The characters are well varied and manage to avoid being either clichés or morality lessons, instead resembling teenagers facing tough choices. Most remarkable in this debut novel is the setting, Soldotna, Alaska in 1990, which is perfectly portrayed. It is gritty and hopeless in the way of many small towns without a lot of jobs or chances, and filled with uniquely Alaskan elements like fishing and small airplanes. At times, the plot's many threads become overwhelming. While the book might be set 30 years ago, teens today will still relate to first love, first sexual experiences, wanting to escape, and watching your friends make different choices.