Driftwood

by Valerie Sherrard

Adam is not looking forward to his family’s plans for the summer. He and his parents will be spending the entire summer at Cabin #10 on Schooner Point. His best friend Billy was supposed to come with them but now those plans have fallen through. What will he do for the long, long summer months? As the weeks pass, however, Adam makes several new friends as several families spend parts of the summer at Schooner Point. But it is his relationship with Theo, an old man who lives at the point that will be the most important to him. Theo loves collecting pieces of driftwood but because of his failing eyesight can’t collect it on his own. Adam and some of his new summertime friends find many unique pieces for Theo’s collection – and with each of their discoveries Theo is able to divine the true origin of the wood with moving tales from around the world. They hear stories from many different regions of the world including China, Australia, and Africa. And those stories and his new friendships make the summer one of the most important ever for Adam.

Genres: Young Adult

200 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2013

About the author

I was born in 1957 in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, and grew up in various parts of Canada. My dad was in the Air Force so the family moved often, and was sent to live in Lahr, West Germany, when I was eleven. It was there that a teacher encouraged me toward writing. I didn't rush into it, though. It wasn't until 2002 that my first book was released, but since then I've had several dozen books for young people published.

One reason I chose to write for children and teens was my experience in working with them. Over the years I fostered about 70 teens in my home, and I also worked as the Director of a group home for teens in my community for more than a decade.

Reviews

[Miranda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was expecting a little more from this book. One of my friends read it and told me I would love it, so I went into reading it with high expectations.
All of these expectations were not completely met, but a lot of them were. I really loved Theo. He was so kind and interesting and i could never hear enough of his stories.
A lot of aspects in this book were easy to predict.
Overall, this book teaches a lot about kinds, friendship and how there's always another way to see a story.

[James Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came across Valerie Sherrard’s name when I performed an Internet search for “Miramichi Authors”. Here, right in Miramichi was a well-published, short-listed author that had somehow flown under my radar. Perhaps this is due to the fact that Ms. Sherrard writes novels for middle graders and young adults. Being well out of that demographic, and having no children of that age likely didn’t help either. So I decided to look up some of her more recent novels in the NB library system.

I found Driftwood (2013, Fitzhenry & Whiteside) and its synopsis looked interesting: a boy Adam (‘I’m almost twelve’) is on a two month summer vacation at the Schooner Point cabins in Miramichi. His best friend Billy was to come along, but backs out at the last-minute with a seemingly poor excuse. However, Adam manages to make some new friends with children of the other campers and meets an old visually impaired man who can tell by touch where pieces of driftwood originate from along with a story to go along with it.
Read the rest of the review at my site, www.MiramichiReader.ca

[Marsha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every one of Valerie Sherrard's books have delighted me, and what impresses me the most is that she's able to write such masterfully absorbing stories in so many different genres and forms.

Driftwood is unlike anything she has written before. The seemingly simple narrative of a boy on summer vacation at a campground by the sea turns out to be a series of linked stories wrapped together, commenting and reflecting on each other. Every single person in this novel changes for the better in an unexpected way. By the last page I was openly weeping. I don't want to give the story away. Suffice it to say that you'll be drawn into Driftwood by the simple and engaging story, but you'll have a deeper appreciation of the world around you by the time you reach the end. Bravo Valerie!

[Madeline Pratchler · Rating 4 out of 5]

My son and I read this book together. We had read Tumbleweed Skies by the same author and enjoyed it, so when I saw Driftwood, I thought it would be another enjoyable read for us. My son really enjoyed it. He loved the stories Theo told, and I could see how it held him spellbound as the story and legends interwove. Especially heartwarming was my son picking up a piece of driftwood a month later, and telling a story about it, so I knew the book stayed with him.

[Rebecca · Rating 1 out of 5]

Adam’s parents are spending the summer in a cabin on a lake, and Adam’s friend Billy was supposed to come with him. Billy backs out at the last minute because his dog is sick, and Adam can’t forgive him. At the lake, though, Adam enjoys a summer of friends and mild adventures. Joey stays for a couple of weeks, twin girls Makyala and MacKenzie too, and Ethan stays even longer. Up the shore is an elderly blind man with a unique gift; given a piece of driftwood, he can tell the tale of where it came from, and of the people who lived near it. Over the course of the summer, he tells one tale from each of five continents. By the end of the summer, Adam has learned more about friendship.

There was an interesting idea here, but it just didn’t work for me. I love episodic stories, but there still needs to be some main purpose behind the story, even if it’s just creating a lovely summer world you wish you could live in. I wasn’t sure what was behind this one, and when I finally figured out it was Adam learning about friendship so he could forgive Billy, I didn’t buy it-—too weak a premise and didn’t permeate the book. The driftwood story idea was what attracted me to the book, but I find it hard to believe that they just happened to find wood from five different continents. The stories, too, didn’t seem to have a point. Only one ended happily; in the others, whether the main character did the right thing or not, things went badly for no obviously apparent reason. The area was well-described, but that was the best thing about the book. Otherwise, it was too bland and directionless for me, and for several of the plotlines there was no resolution—-like the annoying woman who kept barging in with muffins. What was that about?

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a perfect book for reading outside on a summer's day. It's summery without being fluffy and a celebration of life lessons without being preachy. Gorgeous read! -- One I'll likely re-read in a few years.

[Emily Ekstrand-brummer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A gift from Canadian Children's Book Centre. Good Junior Fiction. Kind of too many boring life lessons.