Description

A 2026 CBCA NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR YOUNGER READERS

A beautiful and deeply moving story about friendship, family, hope and the power of the ocean, for middle-grade readers who love a mystery, from popular children's author Ashleigh Barton.

Beatrice Glass - Bea - lives in a tiny fishing village that's sleepy all year until the summertime, when the tourists flock in and most of the locals leave. But summer is also when Bea's favourite person in the entire world, her fun and hilarious uncle, Byron, comes to stay.

On their last day together the previous summer, Byron had given Bea an intriguing antique book containing a map of Somewhere, a mysterious island off the coast, and promised that next summer they'd sail to Somewhere together for their best adventure yet.

That was last year. Now summer has arrived, but Byron hasn't. And now it looks like he never will.

Are the book and Byron's disappearance linked? Byron has left some clues for Bea - a scavenger hunt of sorts designed to bring her and her new friend, Arabella, together and give Bea one last magical summer. Could Somewhere hold the key to both Bea's and Arabella's future?

A story of lost and found, of friendship, family, hope and the power of the ocean, for middle-grade readers who love a mystery.

'Emotionally and structurally satisfying, its evocative, elegiac tone balanced by tidy prose that keeps the story grounded . . . It also conjures vibes of older classics such as Lucy M. Boston's Green Knowe series' BOOKS+PUBLISHING

'A beautiful middle-grade novel with a whimsical olde-worlde feel . . . A truly lovely book' GOOD READING MAGAZINE