The Highest Tide

Title: The Highest Tide
Author: Jim Lynch
Pages: 272
Profanity: PG-13 (Miles's friend has a dirty mouth)
Mature Content: PG-13 (Miles's friend also has a dirty mind)
Level: Middle/High School
Recommendation: Not in this library!!


Summary: One moonlit night, thirteen-year-old Miles O'Malley sneaks out of his house and goes exploring on the tidal flats of Puget Sound. When he discovers a rare giant squid, he instantly becomes a local phenomenon shadowed by people curious as to whether this speed-reading, Rachel Carson obsessed teenager is just an observant boy or an unlikely prophet. But Miles is really just a kid on the verge of growing up, infatuated with the girl next door, worried that his bickering parents will divorce, and fearful that everything, even the bay he loves, is shifting away from him. As the sea continues to offer up discoveries from its mysterious depths, Miles struggles to deal with the difficulties that attend the equally mysterious process of growing up.


Reviews: I loved the setting and ocean life included in this book. Although I fell in love with the main character, I struggled to finish this book. The "friend" in this book, although probably a normal teenager, referenced body parts and made too many "inuendos" for me to enjoy this book . . . the sexual references pretty much ruined the book for me.