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Swimming with Dolphins
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
I absolutely loved this sweet novel in verse!
Grace and her love for marine life were just the sweetest.
This book deals with some pretty heavy things, but it does it in a way that doesn't feel dark or heavy. Watching Grace navigate her family situation without losing her light was a real treat.
As someone who often feels like a walking encyclopedia, I really loved learning about fish from Grace.
You might think a novel in verse wouldn't be able to convey the same depth as a prose novel, but you would be wrong. There is so much happening in this story, and a few words can speak volumes.
I hope I can convince my new 12 year old to pick this one up!
Thank you to the publisher for an advanced ebook copy. I can't wait to get my paperback for my shelf! All thoughts and opinions are mine.
Grace and her love for marine life were just the sweetest.
This book deals with some pretty heavy things, but it does it in a way that doesn't feel dark or heavy. Watching Grace navigate her family situation without losing her light was a real treat.
As someone who often feels like a walking encyclopedia, I really loved learning about fish from Grace.
You might think a novel in verse wouldn't be able to convey the same depth as a prose novel, but you would be wrong. There is so much happening in this story, and a few words can speak volumes.
I hope I can convince my new 12 year old to pick this one up!
Thank you to the publisher for an advanced ebook copy. I can't wait to get my paperback for my shelf! All thoughts and opinions are mine.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
From the first page, I knew this was a special book! Swimming with Dolphins is a middle grade novel-in-verse that tells the story of Grace Arrow. Grace is 11 and wants nothing more than to swim with dolphins at the nearby dolphin encounter for her 12th birthday. But life turns upside down for Grace as her best friend moves away and her great-grandmother Gigi is no longer able to care for her. But instead of foster care, Grace's biological father is found and goes to live with him on his boat at a marina. The book takes place over the summer as Grace learns to navigate what it means to be part of a community, the hopefulness of second chances, and how that we truly need each other.
I was blown away with how well this book handled some really deep and hard life circumstances without feeling dark or overly heavy. Grace is not super-human; she is sad and hurt and grieves and uses her imagination and her love of marine life and poetry to process her world. As the parent of an 11 year old who just turned 12, I found Grace's portrayal to be absolutely pitch-perfect. I saw so many parts of my own daughter in Grace's reactions, inner thoughts, and outlook, and I love that young readers will have the chance to see themselves in Grace's story, even if they can't relate to everything that happens to her.
The novel-in-verse style of this book makes it such a quick and easy read. There's a lot of white space on the page which makes it a great reading experience. Plus the use of concrete poems (poems that look like an image) as well as haiku makes the poetry extremely accessible.
My newly minted 12 year old daughter couldn't put this book down! She loved it so much and it makes my heart so happy to be able to share this book together. I've read quite a few novels-in-verse and Swimming with Dolphins is one of my very favorites! (Plus that cover...stunning!)
I was blown away with how well this book handled some really deep and hard life circumstances without feeling dark or overly heavy. Grace is not super-human; she is sad and hurt and grieves and uses her imagination and her love of marine life and poetry to process her world. As the parent of an 11 year old who just turned 12, I found Grace's portrayal to be absolutely pitch-perfect. I saw so many parts of my own daughter in Grace's reactions, inner thoughts, and outlook, and I love that young readers will have the chance to see themselves in Grace's story, even if they can't relate to everything that happens to her.
The novel-in-verse style of this book makes it such a quick and easy read. There's a lot of white space on the page which makes it a great reading experience. Plus the use of concrete poems (poems that look like an image) as well as haiku makes the poetry extremely accessible.
My newly minted 12 year old daughter couldn't put this book down! She loved it so much and it makes my heart so happy to be able to share this book together. I've read quite a few novels-in-verse and Swimming with Dolphins is one of my very favorites! (Plus that cover...stunning!)
February 18, 2026
Swimming with Dolphins is not the sort of book I would ordinarily pick up, and exactly the sort of book I ended up really loving because it surprised me so much with how much I loved it! It's a novel-in-verse that tackles hard topics with so much tenderness and care (I cried, I'm not going to lie). Suzanne Purvis is SO good at telling stories for young people in verse! This story makes a great stepping stone into heavier novels-in-verse that are out there for teens (such as Long Way Down) as it dips into serious subjects but is still fully MG. I cannot recommend this one enough!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews