Secrets of Selkie Bay

By Shelley Moore Thomas
Lexile level 720

​Sometimes the first page of a book is so gorgeous and powerful that it takes your breath away, and that’s exactly what Shelley Moore Thomas’s first page entitled “Numb” does in Secrets of Selkie Bay. Readers who related to Ada’s resilience and perseverance in Kimberly Brubaker Bradley’s The War that Saved My Life will also connect with Moore’s main character, Cordie, who is forced to take care of her two younger sisters when her mother mysteriously disappears one day and depression numbs her father. Miraculously, Cordie feeds her younger sister’s fantasy that their mother is a selkie and manages to hold onto her own hope until a near disaster lifts their father’s depression and he reveals the truth.