0 January Secret Agent #50

TITLE: ISLAND SHADOWS
GENRE: Realistic YA

I grew up believing in a love story. Now I know it’s a lie.

Ever since Mom and Dad broke their news to me, I knew I had to come to Silver Head. Everything about this place reminds me of childhood. And though part of me knows spending the summer at my grandparents’ cottage by the river probably won’t change anything, a small part of me hopes some distance from my parents will remind them who they were before I came along—just a couple of crazy art students who fell in love.

In the passenger seat of my grandfather’s ’88 Oldsmobile, I lean my head against the glass, tracing the curvy line of the river with my eyes until I grow dizzy. Since I arrived a few days ago, I can’t stop staring at the river. This particular shade of bluish-green doesn’t exist anywhere else I’ve ever been.

Silver Head is a town nestled at the mouth of a great river that runs long and deep. Without binoculars, you can scarcely see across to the other side—which is Canada—and in between are thousands of islands sprouting up from an inland sea. Most of the islands are small, home to seagulls and river rats, while others are dense with trees and sharp with rock, holding up a summer house or two, or even a castle.

“Maybe we’ll do some fishing later, Tessy,” Gramps says, interrupting my river gazing.

“I’ll probably just draw,” I say, playing with a few strands of hair.