Lena, the Sea, and Me

In this engaging follow-up to Ms. Parr’s ‘Adventures With Waffles’ (2015), we follow Trille and his formidable 12-year-old best friend, Lena, through a tumultuous year in their village on the coast of Norway. . . a quirky, zestful story.
—The Wall Street Journal

Parr shows enormous respect for the way children navigate so many of life’s changes. . . and paints the emotions of the children as complex and dignified. . . . A captivating celebration of all the sweet (and bittersweet) feelings that come with growing up.
—School Library Journal (starred review)

Narrated by 10-year-old Trille, this inviting book traces another eventful year in Mathildewick Cove. . . . Published in Norway in 2017, the novel is driven by the vividly portrayed characters who make up the small community. Trille and Lena are growing and changing all along the way as this episodic and sometimes amusing story unfolds. The concluding chapters are among the most surprising, poignant, and memorable in this engaging series.
—Booklist

Parr does a wonderful job of tracing Trille’s nascent coming of age and the changing dynamics of the children’s friendship while simultaneously filling the book with drama and incident, season by season. . . . Characters are vividly drawn, with both humor and pathos, and dialogue zings.
—The Horn Book