Shadows on the Sea is a fictional story and most of the settings and events happened in real life, but all of this happened in 1944, not 1942. Well, at this time, World War II was taking place and the U.S. was fighting against Germany. Jill Winters is a fourteen-year-old-kind-of-famous teen and is now starting to worry about her parents because of the war. Jill’s father, Drew Winters, is a famous singer and he travels on planes, which was then targets to German planes, while Jill’s mother is traveling on the Caribou to the Newfoundlands (because her brother, Jill’s Uncle Cliff, was ill) which, at that time, was a target to German U-boats (Undersea Boats). In fact, any ships in the sea, that wasn’t German, was targeted and torpedoed. So during her summer, Jill travels to Maine to stay with her grandmother, Nana. Over there, she meets and makes two friends, Wendy Taylor and Quarry MacDonald. One day, Jill discovers a hurt, carrier pigeon with a message read: Sonnabend iv. Together, Quarry and Jill try to solve this mystery, yet there are many more secrets in the town of Winter Haven. There are so many rumors and mysteries in Winter Haven like how Wendy and her aunt, Adrie Dekker, look almost identical [like they were twins or daughter and mother or something…) and how Nana and her friend, Ida Wilmar, (plus many more) hold secret meetings every Sunday evenings. Jill’s yearning desire of solving these mysteries take over, but as Jill discovers the answer to an exploding mystery, she ends up endangering herself, or maybe even risking her life… I really enjoyed reading this book and I hope you do, too. Though this is a good book, I would recommend ths book to mostly girls, since the point of view is from a girl’s point of view, but rmainly because the sensitivity in Jill’s heart made me feel like a real girl and not a tomboyish one. But, remember, this story is fictional, yet most of the events had really happened. Joan experienced basically the same things Jill went through, but she was younger when it happened. This story was written from Joan’s own experience and her mom was nearly killed by the Germans. [Good thing she got off before the Germans attacked. So lucky!]

Kelly H.