Gracie Under the Waves
by Linda Sue Park; illus. by Maxine Vee
Intermediate    Allida/HarperCollins    176 pp.
9/24    9780063346291    $18.99
e-book ed.  9780063346314    $9.99

Gracie Kim loves snorkeling and hopes to persuade her parents to spend spring break in the coastal community of Roatán, Honduras. Her younger brother Ben’s unsolicited help keeps introducing wrinkles into her trip-planning. “It would be completely unfair to say that Ben always ruined Gracie’s plans. It would, however, be both fair and realistic to say that Ben always had the potential to ruin her plans.” The family does make the trip, and Gracie is delighted to be snorkeling on a real reef. She makes friends with local conservationists and learns about how climate change is affecting reefs; when an infection incurred from the reef puts her perfect vacation in jeopardy, she finds a way to cope. But Ben’s constant over-enthusiasm and interference get under Gracie’s skin until her emotions get the better of her. The conflict is resolved authentically, with both Gracie and her parents learning new ways to manage Ben’s behavior (which hints at a neurodivergence such as ADHD), and the book’s climax delivers, with genuine but age-appropriate danger and heroism. The environmental and social-justice messages never take the reader out of the story, and Park nails the balance between Gracie’s tween self-centeredness and her caring relationships with friends and family.

From the ">November/December 2024 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.