Between the Lighthouse and You by Michelle Lee (review)

Twelve-year-old Alice Jones is convinced her mother is alive, despite six years passing since Mom sailed into a storm on the Florida coast and disappeared. After all, Mom studied death for a living—specifically, how to communicate with the deceased—and the remote island where she vanished has a peculiar tradition that allows its residents to do just that. Twelve-year-old Leo Mercury takes this tradition, called the tidings, very seriously; he and his family are keepers of both the island’s lighthouse and the messages from the dead that wash ashore each year for island residents. While Leo doesn’t appreciate Alice’s snooping when she and her family arrive on a vacation, an unprecedented tiding from his grandfather brings the two together as they attempt to contact their lost loved ones. Debut author Lee switches between her protagonists’ perspectives in this slow-to-start story, which eventually crests in a heartfelt exploration of grief and familial love. Plot-minded readers will leave Aviles Island with unanswered questions about the liminally spiritual tidings tradition, as well as the island’s continued isolation in the internet era. However, kids processing their own loss who are willing to accept the unexplained may enjoy Alice and Leo’s quest to communicate both with those who have passed on and those who remain behind.