Sea Change by Frank Viva

Eliot is going to have the worst summer vacation ever.  His mother is making him go stay with her uncle in a fishing village clear up in Nova Scotia.  He'll have to leave his buddies and his favorite activities behind.  If that's not bad enough, can you imagine getting up while it's still dark to go fishing on the cold sea?  How about dealing with maggots first thing in the morning?

Myric Marketing and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you).  It has been published and you can grab a copy now.

He's expected to fill up the bait buckets but no one mentioned how they smelled or talked about the fact that there were a lot of maggots in the bait.  He lost his breakfast the first time but he eventually adjusts.  He even starts to have some fun with neighbor kids.  It's not what he wanted but it's not as bad as he expected.

There are vivid graphics, the text sometimes waves or goes sideways, and there's trouble on shore.  There's a bully that needs some guidance, a man who hits his children, and Eliot has to figure out how to fix it without making it worse.

All in all, when it's time to go home, he doesn't really want to.  Everyone hopes he will come back next year and he does, too.  Sometimes you just have to give things a chance.