This is a beautifully written story of faith, hope and redemption. It's a wonderful reminder that though life is not always perfect, love is what remains, faith is what sustains and hope is what gives us courage.

This is a beautiful story written in easy to understand prose. Middle age readers will find it easy to comprehend and older readers will be able to read in-between the lines. It is the story of a Bailey and her brother who are sent to stay for a month with the grandmother she never really knew. Nana Marie lives by the ocean in a sleepy little town. Jasper, the town prophet and bicycle cart ice cream vendor makes a prediction that it will come to pass that a stranger from the sea will change everything. Bailey forms a friendship with a local boy who has weak lungs. Bailey wants to believe all will be well, that her friend Daniel will be healed, that her parents who are trying to save their marriage will make it work, that her friend Jasper will not be ostracized anymore, and that Our Lady of the Bay will be her own savior to help make things right. Bailey is full of faith, but fear also, and she learns that sometimes the greatest gifts come from unexpected places.

Bailey and her little brother Kevin are staying with their grandmother for a month while their parents adding a marriage counseling camp. While Bailey is enjoying getting to know her estranged grandmother, she's worried about her parents and unsettled by some of the people in Felicity Bay, who want to run Jasper, a former preacher who was already run out of the church for making prophecies, out of town. Bailey actually hopes Jasper's prophecies are real--because if a stranger from the sea changes things, like Jasper said, maybe the stranger can fix her parents' rocky relationship. Just when everything seems to be falling apart, Bailey stumbles across a problem the town will have to unite to solve.

This was a captivating novel in free verse. I thought it was really lovely and realistically portrayed the emotions of a tween girl dealing with family troubles. I also thought the adults were portrayed realistically--not overly perfect or overly evil, just imperfect human beings dealing with their issues--which I appreciated; it was nice to see a little depth to characters who too often in children's lit are flat and unrealistic. I also liked how there was a hopeful ending--even though Bailey didn't get everything she hoped for.

Bailey is sent to live with a grandmother she hardly knows for the summer. Her parents are going for counseling and deciding if they still can live together. All Bailey can do is hope for miracles...

Pajama Press and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you). It will be published October 12th so you can grab a copy then.

When she meets the local ice cream man, he used to be a preacher and he still quotes things only he can see. He tells her that a stranger from the sea will fix everything. When she finds a piece of driftwood on the beach, she thinks it looks like a mermaid and is her fixer.

This is tale of hope when it's hopeless. It's the story of a young girl growing up, two adults settling an old hurt, her parent's separation and her new friend on the beach having a debilitating disease. She asks for miracles and gets one in disguise but she might not be able to make her parents happy with each other again.

She finds a beached dolphin and gets the community to help her return it to the sea. She guilts her grandmother into returning the chalice she wanted to memorialize her dead husband. And she goes home with hope for the future and a desire to visit the beach again. It's a lot of trials for a young one but life isn't usually easy. She handles her problems with imagination and persistence. There's a lesson here. Just keep going, don't give up.

If I could give this story six stars, I would!

I don't know if I can gather my thoughts enough right now to even mini-review it! I have so much love for it... LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!

It is about friends and family, hope, belief, wishes, LOVE, imperfect adults, ice cream bars, kids who sometimes understand things better from their uncluttered perspectives, LOVE, fractured families, little brothers, big brothers, illness, memories, LOVE, gossip, grudges, pancakes, mementos, LOVE, treehouses, community, sorrow, disappointment, forgiveness, rootbeer candy, and LOVE.

This now my top Middle Grade so far this year in 2016.

How can something so simple, so naive, so innocent put a dent to my heart? How can two utterly faultless kids see the world in a whole new light, while I can only see darkness and despair? How can miracles come true in the form of a mermaid? Or was it really the driftwood mermaid the stranger on the beach?

This book is tugging at my heartstrings. I feel so protective of the main characters, Bailey and Daniel. I love Bailey’s narration, I see the world in her eyes, I see the driftwood mermaid coming to life. It’s so relaxing and overwhelming getting into her thoughts. She’s a proof that miracles do exist.

I also want to hug Daniel and stop his hacking coughs. I want to remove the pain in his heart. And I cry for Jasper. That poor old man. Why are people cruel to a man with an ice cream & fudgsicle cart and his prophesies?

And Nana Marie? She was the biggest surprise in the book. Seriously! (wait, let me grab my favorite spoon and hide)…

This novel came as a surprise to me. I wasn’t sure how to go about it when I read the first few pages. When Bailey and her brother talked about magic, that’s when the tidal of emotions came rushing to me. And I couldn’t stop reading from thereon. This had been a really beautiful yet very simple story about a miracle that bound a broken family, a magic that reunited a estranged community, a love that never fade even when you think you’ve already lost it.

I read this to my kids and they both enjoyed the root beer candies and fudgsicles. And oh yeah, I saw some glimpse of misty eyes, too. Shari Green is amazing!

Shari Green's middle grade novel about an eleven year old girl named Bailey and her brother Kevin who go to visit their grandmother for a month while their parents are at a marriage counseling camp. Their grandmother (Nana Marie) lives in Felicity Bay, a town by the ocean. I fell in love with Jasper, and the free verse in this novel was stunning,