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From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)

In 1912, eleven-year-old Lucy Landry (Ojibwe and French American) finds herself briefly adrift when her guardian, Miss Mamie, passes away. Lucy’s father perished in a recent shipwreck; her mother is long dead. The Ojibwe Martin family, who reside in a lighthouse on a minuscule island on Lake Superior, offer to foster her. Lucy, who is afraid of water, gets off on the wrong foot with most of the six Martin children, who resent her sudden presence in their family life. Determined to be a help, not a burden, Lucy works extra hard around the house, taking on tasks without being asked—a strategy that backfires when she makes mistakes. (She digs up flowers, for instance, thinking they’re weeds.) Imaginative Lucy copes with her discomfort and emotions by assuming various personas and telling fanciful tales about her father’s sailing days, further exasperating the Martin siblings. She is particularly fixated on her father’s story of a message in a bottle that told of a ruby necklace that was lost on a capsized boat. She’s convinced that if only she had a chance to search, she could find the jewelry washed up in nearby Mermaid Cove. First, though, she must conquer her fear of the lake. Lucy’s story, with her big imagination, is reminiscent of Anne of Green Gables and will appeal to readers who appreciate adventure and danger in their historical fiction.

CCBC Choices 2025 © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin – Madison, 2025. Used with permission.

From School Library Journal

February 1, 2024

Gr 3-7-Selena Lucy Landry (Lucy, for short) is full of imagination, wonder, and a taste for adventure-with one exception. After losing her father in a shipwreck, she has an overwhelming fear of the sea. This proves particularly difficult when she is sent to live with the Martins, a large Anishinaabe family of lighthouse keepers on a tiny island in Lake Superior. She arrives desperate to be loved but can never seem to say or do the right thing. Soon, however, a window of opportunity appears. The Martins live close to Mermaid's Corner, the site of a shipwreck her father often told her about. Can she find the ship's treasure that her father longed to discover? Will seeking it bring her closer to the Martin family, or is Lucy destined to not only be an orphan, but an outcast forever? Lucy has an enchantment reminiscent of Anne Shirley's, but Johnson adds so much depth to the 19th-century orphan story by weaving it with the girl's self-discovery as she connects more deeply with her Ojibwe heritage through her newfound foster family. There is also a nod to homeschooling as the Martins live far from school, and take pride in having their mother as a teacher. VERDICT Fans of L.M. Montgomery seeking diverse characters will rejoice at this heart-warming, feel-good adventure, as will families looking for books representing home learners.-Amira Walker

Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

From Booklist

January 31, 2024
Grades 3-6 A precocious young orphan with a big imagination finds her life uprooted again when she moves to a lighthouse on Harmony Island in Lake Superior. This upper-elementary chapter book blends historical fiction, adventure, and a coming-of-age story, elements that compete with each other in the relatively short page count. As Lucy adapts to the Martin household, she must learn to overcome her "allergy" to the lake if she wants to complete her dead father's mission of finding a missing necklace, and as the Martins share their culture with her, she's happy to forge a stronger connection to her own Ojibwe heritage. Lucy is bighearted but often too quick to act, which many young readers will likely relate to, even as she assumes different personas based on her emotional reactions in a given moment. While the story is quick to unfold, the pacing sometimes makes the story feel unfocused, and the historical fiction elements get overshadowed. All that said, there's still a lot of potential in the character of Lucy Landry, and young chapter-book readers who are more interested in character will appreciate this.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

From Kirkus

Starred review from January 15, 2024
Lucy, a French and Ojibwe orphan living in Michigan in 1912, struggles to fit in with her new foster family. Living with the Martins, an Ojibwe family who are lighthouse keepers on an island in Lake Superior, isn't ideal for someone who's "allergic to lake water." Eleven-year-old Lucy long ago lost her mother to illness. When she was 9, her frequently absent sailor father died in a shipwreck. After her caretaker, Miss Mamie, passes away, Lucy experiences even more upheaval. She's haunted by her father's death--the origin of her fear of water--but she cherishes his stories of the 1866 wreck of the Elva Jane near her new home. The six Martin children have little tolerance for imaginative Lucy's fabricated stories, and from her loneliness grows a need to reconnect with Papa, motivating her to seek the ruby necklace that went down with the Elva Jane. This quest gives her a purpose but endangers the Martin kids and threatens Mr. Martin's job. In a climactic moment, Lucy must draw strength from Papa's memory and face down her fears. This charming page-turner centers a courageous young person whose journey is also a powerful testament to the importance of placing Indigenous children in homes that reflect their cultures. Despite the bumpy start, Lucy finds comfort in connecting with her Ojibwe heritage and also begins to learn some Anishinaabemowin words from the Martins. A heartwarming tale of belonging and learning that life's treasures aren't always shiny. (map, author's note, glossary) (Historical fiction. 8-12)

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

From Publisher's Weekly

Starred review from January 8, 2024
When French and Ojibwe 11-year-old Selena Lucy Landry's guardian dies, she's placed in the care of the Martins, a large Ojibwe family, in this uplifting tale by Johnson (The Star That Always Stays), a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. Already apprehensive about the move, Lucy feels further anxious and isolated when she learns that the family inhabits a lighthouse on a small island in the middle of Lake Superior. Even as she copes with grief, Lucy tries hard to fit in with the six Martin children, regaling them with fanciful, sometimes true, stories. After she recounts the tale of a nearby capsized boat that carried a ruby necklace, her pseudo-siblings gently rib her about the epic's validity, prompting Lucy to set out in search of the necklace, certain that obtaining it for the Martins is her only way to gain acceptance. In this tender, wholesome book about family, Johnson acknowledges the importance of kindness and patience, especially in matters of grief and settling into new places and situations. Third-person passages deftly detail Lucy's tumultuous emotions and winningly balance the mystery of the shipwreck; Anishinaabe text throughout emphasizes how culture and environmental preservation shape the Martin family's values. Ages 8—12. Agent: Jessica Schmeidler, Golden Wheat Literary.