A Tear in the Ocean: Giveaway Winners

A TEAR IN THE OCEAN: Giveaway Winners

16 individual books were given away to educators, school librarians, public librarians, and amazing literacy folks. With our thanks to G.P. Putnam’s Sons
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ABOUT THE BOOK

A Tear in the Ocean
By H. M. Bouwman
Illustrated by Yuko Shimizu
Published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons
ISBN-13: 9780399545221
Age Range: 10 – 13 Years

Putnam, the future king of Raftworld, wants more than anything to prove himself. When the water in the Second World starts to become salty and his father won’t do anything about it, Putnam sees his chance. He steals a boat and sneaks off toward the source of the salty water. He doesn’t know he has a stowaway onboard, an island girl named Artie.

Artie isn’t trying to save the world, she’s just trying to save herself. On the run from an abusive stepfather, Artie just wants a place to call home. Putnam isn’t the partner she would have chosen, but as the two face uncertainty and danger in their shared adventure, an extraordinary friendship forms.

Meanwhile, more than a hundred years in the past, Rayel is also on the run from Raftworld, escaping an arranged marriage she discovers is really a plot to kill her father. She’d planned to be gone just long enough to foil the plot, but once at sea and sailing ever southward, Rayel discovers she has an astonishing magical power that leads her to a new home and a sadness so deep it infects the world.

Told in alternating perspectives with Putnam and Artie traveling further and further into the uncharted southern sea—and Rayel, the key to the saltwater mystery, sailing the same sea in her own time—Putnam and Artie must put aside their differences and figure out why the sea is salty before it’s too late.

“An engaging and original coming-of-age story with an unpredictable and adventurous plot, sure to captivate middle-grade and middle-school fantasy buffs.” —Horn Book
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“Bouwman offers stories of loss, hope, perseverance, and the repercussions of 
severed platonic and familial bonds…Bouwman masterfully infuses old fairy tales and legends into her alternate-universe adventure, meticulously weaving times and storylines into a riveting plot. All three protagonists have brown skin. Shimizu’s energetic black-and-white illustrations add visual drama. A novel that will have readers reflecting on their own experiences of grief, longing, regret, 
survival, and overcoming.” —Kirkus Reviews

ABOUT THE READER & EDUCATOR GUIDE

In the guide, we explore what H.M. Bouwman’s original fairy tales can tell us about our world and ourselves. The guide contains classroom and book club ideas from teaching fairy tales to making connections to climate change and the activism of teen environmentalist Greta Thurber.
DOWNLOAD A Tear in the Ocean: Reader and Educator Guide (PDF)

THE GIVEAWAY WINNERS