Liam and the Giant Eels

Liam and the Giant Eels is about a boy named Liam who's grappling with the loss of his grandpa as well as giant eels invading his small New Jersey town. With the help of new friend Ceila, as well as a handful of longtime friends, they work to get to the bottom of the giant eels. This story beautifully incorporates many topics like how different people handle grief, climate change, and the importance of friendship and togetherness. Although this book is written in verses, there is still a lot of great details. I really enjoyed this book and I think it's very suitable for a young audience.

Thank you to NetGalley, Rosen Publishing Group, West 44 Books, and Ann Malaspina for the opportunity to read Liam and the Giant Eels in exchange for an honest review.

Liam, a twelve-year-old boy, spends his summer at his grandpa's cottage in Jersey Shore. Liam notices a few oddities about the town: blue crabs are gone, something is eating their mail, hi mom's paints are being meddles with, and there are even obscure car accidents. Liam claims it must be giant eels! They are everywhere!

Liam uses local resources including Gramp's journal and reaching out to his local science teacher to try and find answers to these giant eels. Why are they so large? How can the townspeople stop them? What other environmental issues will these giant eels possibly cause?

Liam makes a new friend, Celia, and together, they make a dynamic duo aiming to solve the mystery of the eels, revert the local climate issues, and save Jersey Shore from further havoc. Science needs evidence, and Liam and Celia find themselves on an environmental adventure they weren't expecting, exploring the ease and hardships of friendship along the way.

This is a fun and easy novel-in-verse for middle grade readers (though teens may enjoy it as well too). It explores the thematic idea of friendship as well as exploring some aspects of climate change that a middle grade reader can understand and be enthusiastic about acting upon in their own area. A great middle grade read.

Thank you so much to Risen Publishing/ West 44 Books and Netgalley for the ebook to read and review.

Liam who lives in the marshes of the Jersey Shore recently lost his Gramps, now eels are appearing everywhere in town and there are no blue crabs in the waters. Gramps friend tells Liam and his friend Ciela to investigate, read Gramps’s journal and solve what’s going on.

This was very fascinating, though it was somewhat obvious the answer to the mystery of what was going on with the eels and the crabs, from the start, it was still a really interesting read. I liked that Liam’s Gramps had kept a diary on everything he observed with the waters, the sea life from it all within his journal. I also really liked how Ciela was able to really help Liam to figure everything out.

A very fun verse book on climate change, the dangers of power plants and the ever changing life for nature and sea critters. It was also a sweet story on loss, overcoming the grief of loosing someone you love, finishing something they hadn’t been able to and finding a way through life without them by your side. A really sweet and fun read with a very unique and interesting topic.