Secrets of Topsea, The Extremely High Tide! Is lovably weird and pleasant

A couple of years ago my wife and I went out for date night. It’s that mythical time where moms and dads leave the kids at home then out with other parents, get a drink and eat food with too much cheese. When we got home, part of our conversation led me to say, “the journey is the destination”. Mind you, this was years before I heard it used as a luxury car tagline. But, when I said it, my wife commented that it made sense, we weren’t headed to a big finale, rather; life is the little things that we do and encounter on the way. Secrets of Topsea, The Extremely High Tide! By Kir Fox and M. Shelley Coats is a book that fits that description.

This is the second book in the Secrets of Topsea series and it solidifies the tone that the authors are going for. I’ll readily admit that I didn’t get the first book in the series, A Friendly Town That’s Almost Always by the Ocean. I thought it was slow, pointless, weird and rather aimless.  

With The Extremely High Tide! I get it now-and so will any middle school readers who latch onto this series. As it wears its weirdness as a superhero cape you don’t really need to read the first book to understand what’s going on.

Talise is a fifth-grade student who knows a lot about the ocean. She also has a pet sea blob and has a fear of rubber ducks. As the book starts we see the class by the seaside. Not long after that Talise finds a bottle with a note in it. The note has a drawing of a boat and Talise takes that as an omen that she should build a boat.

This is where the ‘journey is the destination’ aspect factors in. The boat and the journey to build it seems like it’s a main plot point. However, the main thing that ties the characters together is friendship, albeit a friendship that’s painted across all manner of oddities. Parents will also enjoy this series because it manages to keep young reader’s attention without any potty humor. Granted, potty humor is more of a low elementary thing, I’m sure it’s just our upper elementary reader who can’t seem to squeeze it out of his system.

Another thing that the book does well is to balance the interest between boys and girls. The main character is a girl, but it’s not set against a Lilith Fair quilt. Girls will enjoy it more than boys, but not by much. It’s odd and creative to where the overwhelming vibe of the book is trippy, fun and silly-without being sophomoric.

The chapters are presented in a creative, unpredictable fashion with some pages pushing the story forward. Other chapters are short newspaper clippings or the cafeteria menu. In other words, it’s a format that middle school readers will be immediately attracted to, because the journey is the destination.