If there’s one thing Jett has learned over the past year, it’s that fresh starts aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. After a “rotten bad year” in a new town, at a new school, Jett returns to the coast to spend the summer with his Grandma Jo, hoping to forget.

But Jett carries a secret with him. As the summer unfolds, he finds himself examining memories of his past like bits of sea glass—arranging and rearranging them in an effort to make sense of his mistakes.

Told in free verse, this captivating story of betrayal and forgiveness will pull readers in . . . and not easily let them go.

(Kids Can Press - Spring 2018 - Publisher's Page)
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Awards

  • Winner of the 2019 TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award

  • Nominated for the 2020 MYRCA Award

  • Winner of the 2018 BMO Winterset Award

  • Shortlisted for the 2018 Governor General’s Literary Award

  • USBBY Outstanding International Book Selection 2019

  • Shortlisted for the 2019 Silver Birch Award

"As we pulled
up to the little wooden house
on the rocky eastern shore
my heart went crazy,
pounding,
like the crashing waves
I could hear in the distance.
I was so happy to be back,
I almost forgot
I was there to forget."

Reviews

Quill & Quire [Starred Review]

“ ... one of the year's best books.”
- April 2018

Kirkus Reviews

“Heartbreaking---but uplifting.”
- February 2018

Publishers Weekly

“Smith's sparse language exposes the heart of Jett's anguish and destructive anger; he's a realistically complex character whose emotional development unfolds organically through Smith's quiet storytelling.”
- March 2018

School Library Journal [Starred Review]

“... a powerful and poetic story of emotional endurance.”
- March 2018