Book Talk About Beyond The Bright Sea By Lauren Wolk

 Beyond The Bright Sea

By Lauren Wolk

“Some people let fear set its hook in them, so it's hard to pull out.” (Wolk 28) In a book called Beyond The Bright Sea by Lauren Wolk, a twelve-year old girl named Crow has been living on an island off the Elizabeths. She lives with Osh and has a neighbor named Miss Maggie who comes and helps take care of her. 

Crow has always wondered why people are afraid of her and don’t want anything to do with her. Crow knows that she came to the island on a skiff and never knew where she came from. Crow later finds out that it is possible she came from an island called Penikese, Penikese is where all of the people with a sick disease go to. Crow gets more and more curious about Penikese but also she is kind of upset. This feeling was very new to Crow. “Wouldn’t that be a good thing? Not feel pain” [Crow] said. But [Miss Maggie] shook her head.  “There’s more than one kind of pain,” she said. “And if you don’t feel it, you can get hurt” “But it hurts when you do feel it, too,” I said.  “Yes,” she said, “but feeling hurt and being hurt aren’t always the same thing.” Which confused me even more.” (29) In the book Osh explained to Crow how he would feel if he were in Crow’s boots. Osh said “If I wasn’t good enough for them before, I don’t think I want to be one of them now.” (84) Sometimes when someone feels hurt that others don't like them for who they are, it can often prevent them from showing their love for others. Crow decides that she wants to know more about where she came from and who her parents were. So they travel to Penikese Island and look around. They see a man with a shovel digging everywhere on the Island. The man tells them to leave but Miss Maggie refuses to leave, so they continue looking. Then they saw a grave, one of the graves said Margaret and had a picture of a baby sheep on it. Crow thought a baby sheep died there but actually a baby died. They head back home and message the doctor that worked there and find out that Crow probably was the baby named Margaret and they find out that her mother left a fortune on the island somewhere.

Is Crow really the baby named Margaret? Is that what the man was looking for? Does Crow have any other family left? What does the baby sheep mean? Read Beyond The Bright Sea by Lauren Wolk to find out the mysteries of Crow and Penikese Island. 

-Carolina