“This is the story of the summer I almost lost my mum, and found a shark older than the trees….”

In the beginning, we meet ten-year-old Julia relocating with her parents from their home in Cornwall to a lighthouse in Shetland. Julia’s mum, a marine biologist, is using the trip to search for an elusive and 400-year-old Greenland Shark. While her parents are settling into their temporary home, Julia meets a shy and soulful boy called Kin. The new friends observe the stars together, while her mum watches the sea.

Outside of lighthouse life, a storm is growing closer. Time goes by, and there is no sign of the shark. Through small domestic actions and Julia’s dreams, it becomes apparent that – as pledged in the first line of this book – there are more secrets in the ocean than the sky.

Brimming with compassion, we are reminded – throughout the main plot and even in minor characters, such as local bully Adrian – that waters run deep, and what lies beneath may not be what we thought it was. The truth will eventually surface.

The further the story unfolds, the more you realise how fluid, connected and beautifully interwoven every part is. Even a glance of the front cover can throw you back into the mood for a re-read: young Julia in her mum’s oversized coat, standing in a circular swirl of gold representing the sea, the sky, the circle of life, certainty, and possibility.

This is the first novel with Kiran Millwood Hargrave and her husband, illustrator Tom de Freston. Kiran’s lyrical prose is illuminated and shadowed beautifully alongside Tom’s art, to the extent that it is hard to imagine one without the other.

The shark was beneath my bed, growing large as the room, large as the lighthouse, rising from unfathomable depths until it ripped the whole island from its roots. The bed was a boat, the shark a tide, and it pulled me so far out to sea I was only a speck, a spot, a mote, a dying star in an unending sky…

In summary, this is a beautiful, lyrical, uplifting story about a mother, a daughter, and love – with timely themes of the importance of science and the environment. Suitable for readers age 9+ and thoroughly recommend for adults.

(Review by Tilly)