Tides

by V.M. Caldwell, Erica Magnus (Illustrator)

While spending the summer with her new siblings and cousins at their grandmother's house by the ocean, Elizabeth begins to feel that she belongs to her adoptive family. Simultaneous.

Genres: Childrens, Young Adult

311 pages, Paperback

First published March 26, 2001

Reviews

[Autumn Fortier · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite books. I enjoy it more than the first book in this two-book series, The Ocean Within. I noticed many similarities between the two books, reading Tides shortly after book one. There is a lot of sadness, troubles, joys, and laughter interwoven into both. One thing I also appreciate is that, unlike the first book, it doesn't end at the end of the summer. It goes til the day after Christmas. Tides takes place one year after the end of The Ocean Within. The focus of both books is a pre-teen girl named Elizabeth, learning how to fit into her new family after going from foster home to foster home for the 6 years after her parents died. There is a lot of family drama in the second one that goes beyond it. In addition to figuring out life in the boisterous but loving Sheridan family, Elizabeth has to cope with the depression and anger of her oldest cousin, Adam, as he faces the future after his two friends pass away a few months after Elizabeth's adoption. Adam's struggles rock the whole family, which consists of three brothers, their wives, and kids, the 8 Sheridan cousins, and their mother. The cousins, Adam, Caroline(Elizabeth's sister), Andrew, Molly, Elizabeth, Abby, Paul(Elizabeth's brother), Sarah, and Petey(Elizabeth's favorite cousin), live with Grandma during the month of July(which makes both books great July reads). During the summer, the Sheridan cousins and their Grandma practically live in the ocean, going to the beach twice almost every day!
The previous year, Elizabeth was scared of the ocean. The school year leading up to the next summer, she works really hard at learning to swim. She is surprised and horrified to discover the first day that she is still scared of the ocean. She realizes that she simply can't swim in the ocean. After hiding her true feelings most of her life, Elizabeth still struggles with being open with her family.
Instead of admitting she's scared to swim, she avoids talking about it or doing it.
You can read Tides without reading book 1 if you want to, since there is a summary of what happens in The Ocean Within, as well as the things that took place between the ending and the start of Tides. I originally did that because my library only has Tides. I have since purchased book 1 so that I could see what it was like. Elizabeth is less pleasant in The Ocean Within. Both books have some mild language. The Ocean Within has more though. The cousins get in trouble a decent amount and get punished by their grandmother, mainly through spanking. It is mentioned several times that Elizabeth's mom, Karen, as well as Molly and Adam's mom, Elena, hate that Grandma spanks, but neither seems to do anything about it. I personally don't disagree that it is wrong to spank. Grandma only does it when it is necessary, and she hates to do it. If they don't spank, I don't really know what the parents do to punish their children when they are not with Grandma. The parents are not in The Ocean Within much, and while they play a bigger part in Tides, they still are background characters. The focus of both books is mainly Elizabeth's relationships with her Grandma and cousins, with a bigger emphasis on her relationship with Grandma.
In Tides, Elizabeth's parents seem to try to discipline with their words, using a stern tone when their kids say stuff they shouldn't. Her dad jokingly uses their upcoming visit with their spanking Grandma as a threat. It almost seems as if they rely on Mrs. Sheridan to discipline their children for them!
During the fall in the book, Elizabeth and her parents get in an argument about Elizabeth going to a school dance. She doesn't want to, and they try to almost bribe her into going, saying that she only has to stay for an hour and that she can go to the dance with her cousin, Andrew, instead of a boy at school. Then, Elizabeth goes to Grandma's house to stay the weekend. It is later implied that all the grandkids stay a weekend with their Grandma. I think that it's really sweet how close the cousins are to their paternal grandmother. While she's there, Mrs. Sheridan also tries to convince Elizabeth to go to the school dance. Elizabeth says she doesn't need friends outside of the family. When asked why she thinks that, Elizabeth unintentionally says that she's not a real part of the family, which earns her a slap on the butt from her Grandma. Grandma says that if she ever says she's not a real part of the family again, she will spank her bottom into next week!
Mrs. Sheridan then gets a phone call. Aunt Elena's mom died, so Grandma has to bring Elizabeth home to go and stay with Molly while her parents go to Barcelona, Spain. Sadly, Molly is not as close to her paternal grandmother, having only met her once. She takes solace in talking about it with Elizabeth, who is portrayed as a good listener.
Because of this, Elizabeth's parents let her skip the school dance, saying it's not important enough to fight over.
Emphasis is placed on apologizing to people after doing something wrong. That's good, but it doesn't give the impression that they should be sorry before saying they are.
Despite all this, the family is one that sounds great. They have their problems, but despite them, they all come back together, loving each other fiercely, despite their differences, which is a good lesson for all of us. Some of their differences include religion. Aunt Elena is Catholic, Aunt Rachel(Andrew, Petey, Abby, and Sarah's mom, and Uncle Tim's wife) is Jewish, and Kevin and Karen are Christian by tradition, Karen stating that she's currently agnostic in Elizabeth's adoption form. None of them persecute each other for their beliefs, which has been an unfortunate situation throughout history, with Jews persecuting Christians and Catholics killing Jews. As a Christian myself, I appreciate the fact that Kevin and Karen don't try to pretend to be something they are not.
Adam is absent for most of the book, fighting with his cousins when he is around and storming off. He then leaves for Montana on less than joyful terms. But when he unexpectedly shows up at Grandma's house for Christmas, he is much happier and makes up with everyone. This is very heartwarming, but that couldn't come without the heartache leading up to it. Personally, this part of the story hits close to home for me, since I myself have a 'prodigal cousin.' I am hoping and praying she will come back to our family someday. We appreciate things more after the struggle. As someone currently dealing with some tough things(and who isn't?), I have discovered that I don't want to read about easy fixes. Life is hard, and easy doesn't cut it. For me, reading through the sad scenes in this book makes the ending that much more satisfying. This is one of those few books that I don't want to end even while I'm anticipating the ending!
It is hard to pick a favorite character, but Molly wins! I really identify with Elizabeth, and out of all the characters, I am most like her. The characters are well written, and have a lot of depth to them. They are not flat, which is nice. V. M. Caldwell is a good storyteller. I highly recommend this book to anyone, though if you have trouble reading about family struggles, be cautious.