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How to Make Friends with the Sea Hardcover – March 31, 2020
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Pablo is homesick.
He's only twelve years old, but he's lived in more countries than he can count. After his parents divorced, he and his mother have moved from place to place for years, never settling anywhere long enough to call it home. And along the way, Pablo has collected more and more fears: of dirt, of germs, and most of all, of the ocean.
Now they're living in the Philippines, and his mother, a zoologist who works at a local wildlife refuge, is too busy saving animals to notice that Pablo might need saving, too. Then his mother takes in Chiqui, an orphaned girl with a cleft lip―and Pablo finds that through being strong for Chiqui, his own fears don't seem so scary.
He might even find the courage to face his biggest fear of all...and learn how to make friends with the sea.
- Reading age8 - 12 years
- Print length368 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Grade level3 - 4
- Dimensions5.74 x 1.29 x 8.61 inches
- PublisherFarrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
- Publication dateMarch 31, 2020
- ISBN-100374311994
- ISBN-13978-0374311995
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Guerrero touches on many topics—anxiety, fostering, friendship, family, selective mutism, and more—seamlessly weaving them all together to create a strong, moving narrative. [...] A heartbreaking, heartwarming, powerful debut novel." — Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
"A story for anyone who's ever asked where—and what—home is." — Jack Cheng, author of See You in the Cosmos
"How to Make Friends with the Sea is a heartwarming story about family, friendship, identity and finding courage within our own hearts. I know readers will have as much fun cheering for Pablo as I did." — Dan Gemeinhart, author of The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise
"Touching and sweet, Tanya Guerrero’s debut How to Make Friends with the Sea is a multi-layered story with heaps of heart. Readers will root for Pablo as he finds his courage, voice, and family on this journey to self-acceptance." — Elly Swartz, author of Finding Perfect and Give and Take
"Atmospheric and moving, How to Make Friends with the Sea is an impressive debut. The friendship between Pablo and Chiqui completely captured my heart." — Jasmine Warga, author of Other Words for Home
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) (March 31, 2020)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 368 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0374311994
- ISBN-13 : 978-0374311995
- Reading age : 8 - 12 years
- Grade level : 3 - 4
- Item Weight : 15.2 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.74 x 1.29 x 8.61 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,795,694 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #961 in Children's Books on Orphans & Foster Homes
- #1,295 in Children's Books on Diseases & Physical Illness
- #2,913 in Anxiety
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Tanya Guerrero is Filipino and Spanish by birth, but has been fortunate enough to call three countries home—the Philippines, Spain, and the United States. Currently, she lives in a shipping container home in the suburbs of Manila with her husband, daughter, and a menagerie of rescued cats and dogs. She has volunteered for animal welfare organizations since 2008, focusing on Trap/Neuter/Return and Rescue/Foster/Adopt. In her free time, she grows her own food, bakes, and reads. Farrar, Strauss and Giroux BYR has published three of her middle grade books, How to Make Friends with the Sea (2020), All You Knead is Love (2021) and Adrift (2022), which have been nominated for state awards, been selected for the Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, and been awarded the Gourmand Award for Best Food Fiction. Her adult debut, Cat's People, which she describes as the cat book of her heart, will be published by Delacorte/Penguin Random House in spring 2025.
Customer reviews
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- Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2020Tender and emotionally complex characters, a vivid and memorable setting, great prose, fantastic pacing, gentle humor—HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH THE SEA has it all. I loved this book and could not put it down!
Pablo is a sensitive, highly perceptive 12-year-old struggling with anxiety and phobias stemming from his parents’ separation and his mom’s decision to hopscotch with Pablo from country to country for her work as a wildlife conservationist. They recently landed in the Philippines, and Pablo’s obsession with cleanliness, germs, and control of his surroundings, which he can’t bring himself to talk about with his mother or anyone else, has begun taking over his life. That is until his mom is obligated by her employer to temporarily foster a traumatized, abandoned preschooler named Chiqui. As Chiqui comes to trust and depend on Pablo, he discovers in himself the capacity to love, to believe in his own self-worth, and to let go of his obsessive need for control—and to confront his fears and discover the depth of his courage.
All of the characters in the book came across as real people—complex, nuanced, kind, and distinct. I loved that all were extremely likable (with the exception of Pablo’s loathsome absentee father—but he felt very real, too). Maintaining high emotional stakes in a book with no real villains is a difficult feat, but Guerrero pulled it off flawlessly.
I highly recommend this beautiful book for everyone, and especially for kids who are looking for gentle, kind, sensitive stories with great pacing and characters.
- Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2023This is a great book for fearful kids, as it features a protagonist who overcomes phobias. Also it's great for expanding horizons as the characters learn about other cultures.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2020In this stunning middle grade debut, Pablo moves to the Philippines for his mother's job at an animal sanctuary. The reader will discover the lush setting as the narrator does. Guerrero beautifully weaves multiple languages and cultures in a story about a boy accepting himself. The portrayal of Pablo's anxiety is sensitive and pragmatic. This is sure to be an award winner, and I am so lucky to have read it!
- Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2020How To Make Friends With The Sea is a captivating story with a unique main character who will speak to the hearts of readers. Students who experience anxiety will relate to Pablo’s story and Guerrero’s presentation of his situation is both realistic and age-appropriate. Highly recommend this hopeful and moving story!
- Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2020What else can I say? My kid loved it so much that she pretended to be sick so she could avoid schoolwork so she could sneak off to "bed" to "nap" AKA read this book. She devoured it. What else can a mom want out of a book?
- Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2020I enjoyed this book but something held me back from really loving it. Pablo is a kid who is currently living in the Philippines with his mother (his father left the, five years prior and is pretty much absentee). This is his sixth move in five years and Pablo doesn't want to move again. He is starting to like his home, his friends (a family lives across the street and he becomes close with Happy, a girl about his age), and the animal sanctuary his mother works at. Pablo has always had problems with OCD (they never name the disorder); he counts things, is obsessed with germs, is afraid of water. All of these are exacerbated by all the moving. He doesn't tell his mother how deep these compulsions and feelings are. You see Pablo start to deal with these issues and come out of his shell when Chiqui, an orphan girl with a cleft palette, comes to stay with them. We see Pablo face fears and open up. I think what bothered me is we never see his mother try to get him professional help. Yes he starts to do things out of his comfort zone, but hearing his inner thoughts make the reader realize how bad it is. I also think there were times when the author forgot she was writing a middle grade book with a tween main character because some of his thoughts and words are a bit too mature, which would be fine if we saw where this would come from but we don't. It ended very satisfyingly, which I enjoyed.
- Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2020I bought this book for my avid readers - two boys 5th and 6th grade and they both loved it and said it was the best book they've ever read. Because of that I'm reading it too! Love it so far!
- Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2020I recommend this book is for all ages if you want to learn about Filipino culture, being different on the outside or feeling you're broken on the inside and opening to compassionate living.