Sea Legs, by Jules Bakes & Niki Smith

Jules Bakes and Niki Smith's middle-grade memoir Sea Legs has a unique hook: Bakes spent much of her childhood as a boat kid. In other words, her parents were itinerant sailors who would rarely stay long in one area, taking on jobs before sailing on to a new locale. This particular narrative begins with her parents deciding to go on a year-long trip to the Caribbean, which meant Bakes (renamed Janey for this story) went along with them, being home-schooled a few hours a day. 

This narrative has a lot going for it. The character hook is irresistible, and Bakes leans into it all the way, in a manner one would expect for Scholastic. Bakes drops all sorts of nautical terms and ocean-related factoids throughout the book, which makes sense given its target audience likely is unaware of this information. Bakes manages to make it a comfortable part of the narrative, given Janey's own obsession with facts and stories. Janey is an amiable narrator; goofy and awkward but also loving, curious, and loyal. Smith's playful, lively, and at times whimsical art is crucial in conveying the narrative, as she fully captures Janey's clunky awkwardness that goes hand-in-hand with her wild, expressive enthusiasm. Smith also has the chops to portray the ship and life at sea, breathing life into the narrative with a blend of cartoony facial expressions and realistic backgrounds. 

The plot is less important than the world-building here; while there's a hurricane that throws everything into disarray, the plot is more in support of the central theme of the book: the matter of being, in the philosophical sense. For a lighthearted book in some ways, Janey's character is one who has a deep sense of the void, of non-being, and she fears it. She cannot escape the thought of it, as it is personified in this cold, blue hole in the ocean that was over an underwater cave. It represented the absence of everything, but above all else, it represented ultimate isolation and disconnection. From the very beginning of the book, Janey values friendship above all else. Leaving behind her best friend from school is devastating to her, even as she tries to stay connected through writing letters. 

Of course, the problem with existential terror is that by its very nature, it is isolating and even solipsistic. Janey's terrible loneliness at sea drives a wedge between her and her parents, but especially her mom. When she makes friends with a cold, aloof fellow boat kid named Astrid, it alleviates her loneliness but not her sense of belonging. Astrid is desperate for her own sense of connection, but Janey doesn't understand why until much later. Bakes hints at Astrid's trauma in being around an abusive and alcoholic father who is charged with taking care of her younger siblings, especially in relation to the things that Janey has but cannot see: loving parents. 

Janey's obstinacy is what she has to work through in the course of the story, as well as the feeling of self-absorption that inhibits her ability to fully empathize with others. This leads to some adventures that she gets into precisely to feel older and cooler than she actually is, to seek meaning, and to fill the gap of existential dread with adrenaline. It is fitting that the ending is an anti-climax in some ways; she never gets to read Astrid's last letter to her, never hears from her again, and even the beloved Merimaid, her parents' boat, is badly battered by the storm. All that remains is to write her a letter and put it in a bottle, repair the ship, and try again--a little older and a little wiser.