This is such a sweet story. Alexis is a 12-year-old girl in Hawaii who loves ciphers! Her mom works in counterintelligence and leaves codes and puzzles behind as a treasure hunt for Alex when she has to leave.

Her mom is lost at sea, she's afraid of the ocean, and her uncle is sick. She must find a way to deal with all the emotions and solve the puzzle her mother left her.

It's for children, but it touches on hard topics for kids while showing that even during hard times there is always hope.

I really enjoyed this one.

Kids who love stories in exotic settings and solving mysteries are going to enjoy this story. Middle grade fiction that will keep kids interested to the end! Fun read, suspenseful, tight family and friends make this book a fun adventure!

Review published on Goodreads, 29 April 2022:

I enjoy Wendy Swore's gentle MG novels and this one, her newest, is no exception. My favorite thing about it, I think, is the strong sense of place. Laie, Hawaii, really comes alive in the book. I've been to Laie, but now I feel like I know the REAL Laie! The characters are also very sympathetic and likable. Alex is a kind, sensitive girl who's surrounded by friends and family who are also warm, compassionate, and supportive. As far as plot goes...at 287 pages, STRONG LIKE THE SEA is long for a contemporary MG story and it does feel slow at times. The treasure hunt/puzzle aspect is fun, but even that got a little dull for me, especially since it ends in such an anti-climatic way for something that's so central to the plot. True, solving the challenge isn't really what this book is about, but still. At its heart, this novel is a sweet story about family, friendship, respecting the natural world, overcoming fear, and finding the inner strength that's within each of us. I didn't love the book, but I liked it overall.

If I could, I would give STRONG LIKE THE SEA 3 1/2 stars; since I can't, I'm rounding up.

Wendy Swore's books always have a lovely theme of family and love and sticking together. What a beautiful setting! The puzzles were fun to figure out. Alexis is wonderful and I enjoyed her brave journey.

A beautiful and touching Middle Grade. I loved the prose and pacing. It was a quick read with great impact.

An enjoyable read with my 10 year old daughter. We love maritime/coastal set locations in our books and this one appealed to us with the cover and the summary. Overall we liked the story and the character growth. Those are always our favorite elements to talk about together.

*Read it a while ago, forgot to post the review.

It's a very cute an cosy story, but I must say; it stays like that. I missed some more action and perspective. The characters weren't that challenging. I did like the story however. It just didn't blow me away because it was a little plain. It needed some more spice to make it perfect.

Enjoyable and heart warming tale about family ( especially the mother/daughter bond.) and overcoming your fears. I liked the look at the Hawaiian culture. Well written.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for allowing me to read this!

I was instantly intrigued by the synopsis of this book. This book instantly drew me in, I got to explore through the eyes of our main character and this is always my favorite way to discover these details of the story and, it was done very well in this book. I really enjoyed this book and the plot. This author did amazing. I loved the writing style.

I was not sure what to expect when I started this book but ended up really liking it! I don't know much about Hawaii other than what you see in pop culture and it was fun to get a different perspective. The characters in this book were fleshed out well and you learned to love/understand them quickly. I would recommend this title to anyone looking for a middle grade title about facing your fears and how to go about living while you do so.

It is a wonderful story where the mom connects with the daughter by giving her codes to break, while the mom is away from the family. The setting of Hawaii adds to the beauty of the story. You can’t help but cherish the relationship between the little girl and her uncle. You go on a journey with them while they learn about each other and from each other. While reading the book you think its about a girl and her mother, but it’s really about a girl finding herself in her friends and her family, especially her uncle, who refinds his humanity-his family/gentler side. I can’t wait to add this book to my library and to recommend it to the student to read. This is my #1 favorite summer book read. Excellent writing, excellent story, feel good book, you’ll want to read again and again..

I want to thank NetGalley and Shadow Mountain for a eARC. Strong Like the Sea is a wonderful middle grade book. I love how they put Hawaiian culture in this story. I would recommend anyone to read this. I'm giving this book a 4 out of 5 stars. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Strong Like the Sea took some definite think-power to write! Throughout the entire story, Alexis is on a mission to figure out the challenging puzzle her mother left her while she attended a work-trip. Alexis's mother is a scientist who works secret jobs to help the government. Alexis is taking after her mom's footsteps by learning these strategies in how to solve problems and figure out the bigger meaning behind everything she sees. While completing her mom's list of challenges, Alexis discovers so much more than what she ever thought she would.

I really liked this book. The location was so vivid and I loved the puzzles. This book was excellent!

This is a cute middle grade story set in Laie, Hawaii about overcoming fears. There are a lot of unfamiliar Hawaiian words, but readers will be able to figure out the meaning from the context. There is also a glossary at the end with definitions if needed. Fun topics are introduced that readers will want to learn more about like Rainbow Eucalyptus trees and the incredible women from WWII Alexis researches for her history project.

Alexis is an insecure 6th grade girl. She worries about disappointing her parents, especially her mom who is gone periodically while working for navy intelligence on a submarine. She is very intelligent and leaves clues and riddles for Alex to decode. Alex is afraid to go in the ocean due to a traumatic experience, but overcomes her fear when it is necessary to help her family. She realizes what matters in life is your family, not your stuff or awards.

I love that their family motto is Rise Where You Stand. It came from a coconut planted in a crack of lava that didn’t have any dirt but grew up strong like the sea. The message her dad gives her is sometimes life is hard and unfair, but you can overcome it because you’re stronger than you know.
Thanks to Shadow Mountain Publishing for an ARC to use for my review.

The writing just needs a lot of editing and work. It's not appealing to me. I'm confused by the author's dialect decisions. There are all these run-on sentences, even from the very first page. It just feels like a really raw rough draft. I didn't get past the first 5 pages because I thought the writing was very poor.

Alex loves living in Hawaii almost as much as she loves her mom’s habit of creating clue and code filled treasure hunts for her solve. But Alex hates the ocean ever since she was swept out to sea and nearly drowned. When her mom is away on a work trip for her job in counterintelligence, she leaves Alex a fascinating new mystery to solve. There are puzzles and codes to crack and Alex is having a blast until her mom’s is out at risk. This book has a great cast of characters. Alex is smart and witty and loves her family but she also has fears that hold her back from enjoying life to the fullest. Her adventure leads her to face her fears and find her bravery for her family ultimately leading to a rescue where Alex saves the life of someone special. The story will draw children in with the fast paced action and adventure in a treasure hunt style mission. Readers will enjoy trying to solve the puzzles and cyphers along with Alex while empathizing with her fears. An entertaining read for mid to upper elementary readers who love books with a background of Hawaiian culture, mysteries to solve and missions to complete.

My daughters and I recently finished reading this book together, and it was so good!

Alexis lives in Hawaii, but after a bad experience involving a moray eel, she prefers to avoid the ocean. Her mom, an intelligence contractor often away working on US navy submarines, leaves coding puzzles and hunts for Alexis to complete, giving them a connection even when they’re apart. Alexis’s latest assignment includes helping her mom’s grumpy adopted uncle with his work, and I loved how that relationship developed for Alexis and for Uncle Tanaka. They both ended up stretching and helping each other. I really enjoyed how not only Alexis and her Uncle, but also most of the other characters (like her dad and her friends) also grew and learned important lessons throughout the story. The coding and the vivid Hawaiian setting were also well done.

I asked my kids what they most liked, and one said the plot and the other said the setting. If you (or your children) enjoy middle-grade fiction, or if you just want to take a trip to Hawaii without boarding a plane, I recommend checking out this book.

Alex lives in Hawaii, where she enjoys solving puzzles created by her mother, a Navy intelligence officer. But she does not enjoy the ocean due to an accident she had a few years earlier. Alex must summon up all the courage she has when she is called upon to help her uncle with his ocean research, and then when her mother's Navy sub goes missing. I enjoyed Swore's The Wish and the Peacock, and here is another richly-layered story about a child learning to take on the responsibilities of adulthood. The Hawaiian setting is great, too, and the details of Alex's island will fascinate kids.

I received an electronic ARC from Shadow Mountain Publishing through NetGalley.
Readers meet Alexis, a 12-year old who lives in Hawaii, and see how she interacts with family and friends. She is terrified of the water; eventually, readers learn why when her uncle convinces her to share with him. This fear is a central part of the story, and as you would expect, she conquers it when someone more important is in danger on the water.
The overarching themes of love and living up to expectations come through clearly. Readers also see different styles of coping when a parent/spouse is away for long periods of time. Staying on schedules is another theme that weaves through the overall plot.
For me, the book bogged down in the descriptions at times and didn't move forward smoothly. Certainly, Hawaii is beautiful and the sea creatures survival is critical, but the breaks from the story to revisit this were distracting at times. Readers also saw Alexis solve the puzzles set up by her mom but did not participate actively in the process. They remained spectators looking on as the characters interacted.
Overall, it is a sweet story about survival and overcoming fears of all sorts. Middle grade readers will appreciate the struggles Alexis and her friends walk through. We see her friends struggle with overcommitment and parental job loss in the background to Alexis' family story. Their challenges are hinted at but get resolved in the background.
The final sentence "Grow strong like my family - strong like the sea." sums up and connects the pieces throughout the book. The sea turtles hatch, her mom is home, her uncle is recovering, and she has faced and conquered her main fears and anxieties.